


Seal of Time

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dimension Travel, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28937328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: Diabolic Esper arrives in a new dimension and thinks Mastermind is his mother.
Relationships: Edward "Add" Grenore/Edward "Add" Grenore, Lunatic Psyker/Mastermind, Mastermind/Lunatic Psyker





	1. Mother

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr. Art done by [https://dezimaton.tumblr.com/](dezimaton!)

He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. A strange occurrence since he has seen many different possible timelines in his lifetime, enough to make any man mad. Then again, who was to say he wasn’t mad? For the first time in years, Esper had no idea where he was. 

The white haired man turned his head to the side to see a figure standing at the door with a glazed look. The person had long white hair, reaching down to the mid back. Esper didn’t notice the thin magenta line running down the person’s left eye. 

The time traveler reached out with one hand, whispering, “Mother.” 

The person flinched at the word, biting their bottom lips. His savior wore a white hooded jacket that covered up much of their body, only to reveal a suit underneath it. Esper didn’t notice the awkward silence the person created, too used to isolation from people. The time traveler glanced around his new environment, looking for evidence that the person in front of him was his mother. 

It was a very simple room. There was barely anything personal in the room besides a small desk near the door and pale lilac curtains at the window. The bed was placed in the corner of the room, on the opposite side of where the window was located. Esper saw his jacket hung over the desk’s chair along with his dynamos, which were leaning at the foot of the chair. 

“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” the person finally broke the silence. They said those words so quietly that Esper almost thought he was dreaming if it wasn’t for his moving lips. At those words, the person left the room to let Esper rest. Esper only felt more confused. Where was he?

* * *

Add let out a soft sigh behind the closed door. The Mastermind rubbed his temples as a dozen thoughts ran through his mind. What was he going to do with that man? That…person, who looked so much like himself. He took samples of his blood, the blood from his wounds, and tested to see that their DNA was identical. How was it scientifically possible? Add tried to recall his past, but didn’t remember ever having a twin. Even if he did have a twin, that brother would have been dead like his parents. 

After running through a dungeon with the El brat and his friends a few days ago, a giant crack in the sky formed above them. Add caught sight of a bleeding figure falling down as he collected the data he needed. He was more than shocked when he saw that the person shared his face. With the help of his dynamos, the scientist brought the man back to his apartment and tended his wounds. Add fed the man several times a day, but the man wasn’t completely conscious until today. 

“Mother…” Add repeated Esper’s words. 

The time traveler thought Add was their mother. He let out a cruel chuckle to himself. The man must be delusional to mistaken him as a woman, but it still hurt Add to be reminded of their dead mother. 

Add thought of the possibility of the man being his clone, but quickly dismissed it. It was a ridiculous concept that only belonged in those Sci-Fi movies Elsword always insisted on watching with the rest of the team. He ran through more possibilities, but each one sounded more absurd than the last. 

“Time is being wasted when I can be updating my research,” Add mumbled, yet he was still fascinated in the man’s origins. 

He had inspected Esper’s dynamos earlier and discovered that it ran through a similar program as Add’s. His mind grew giddy at the thought of how much information he could extract from the time traveler. There was the possibility of Esper having access to information he has yet to acquire. More codes to gain. More opportunities to improve his programs and weapons. Add had to restrain himself from pulling the man out of bed and demanding answers out of him. 

Add closed his eyes and leaned himself back on his chair. There was no rush. What were the chances of the mysterious man running off on his own when he could barely walk?

* * *

The scientist grew impatient with Esper. It has been days since Esper gained consciousness and since then lazily moved around the apartment like it belonged to him. Esper frequently experienced nightmares and would cry or scream in his sleep, making it harder for Add to sleep than he usually did. When Esper wasn’t locking himself up in the library room, he was sitting at the rooftop mumbling equations to himself. Add found himself creeped out by it and he was supposed to be the insane one. 

“Eat,” Add scowled at his new roommate. He was always done eating his meal while Esper barely ate half of his portions. The scientist didn’t recall himself ever being a picky eater, so Esper’s eating habits surprised him. 

Esper didn’t respond to Add’s probing and stared outside of the window instead.

“If you don’t eat, you’re going to turn into a stick.” 

The time traveler still didn’t say anything, so Add was surprised when he saw the man slowly pick up his chopsticks and ate the last bit of meat he had left on his plate. Was it something he said? Esper didn’t give him eye contact; they were wandering off somewhere into the distant, as if they were living in another lifetime. Add grabbed Esper’s plate once the last bit of rice was eaten and went over to the sink to wash the dishes. What had he gotten himself into? 

* * *

“Keh, heh, heh, heh!” He cackled. 

“Add?” The Mastermind felt weird calling his twin by his own name.

Esper had called him mother for the last week or so. It took all his dignity and pride to hold a straight face while being referred to as ‘mother’. _It’s because I don’t want to break him_ , Add mentally repeated to himself, _I’ll tell him eventually_. Lies, lies, lies. It was obvious that Esper had found out the truth. If Esper really was Add, then it wouldn’t take him long to figure out what was going on. 

“You thought this was funny, huh, pretty boy?” Esper’s usual sullen face morphed into a wide grin. “You thought it would be amusing to fool me into thinking you were mother? You fucking imposter!” The man summoned his dynamos and screamed, “Dynamo Configuration: Space Crack!”

The dynamos glowed a pale purple, emitting strong forces of electricity around it. Add felt the air around him become static, ripping apart the space continuum as a crack formed behind him. Esper raced towards him, hurling spheres of energy towards his direction. Add’s dynamos automatically responded to their master’s thoughts and formed a shield around the scientist, reflecting the attacks back at Esper. The time traveler flew across the apartment room and smacked against the weak wall, forming a deep crater. 

“I see my other self isn’t much as pathetic as I thought, ehehe.” Esper laughed uncontrollably. 

“Phantom Seeker!” Add sent his dynamos tracking after the fast moving man. 

Esper went back on his feet and hurled a ball of energy at Add, not caring that he missed. The time traveler darted around the room with the help of his portals and aimed at multiple directions. Add easily dodged all of his attacks, realizing that there was no pattern in his attacks. Was Esper mocking his battle abilities? 

“What the hell are you?” The scientist growled, covering his right eye with one gloved hand. “You fucking diabolic bastard.”

“That’s what they call me, Diabolic Esper~” Esper sang, “To think I mistakened you as mother. Simply pathetic!” 

Shortly after Add tried to feed him, Esper went to explore the city after making sure Add was fixated into his research. It looked nothing like the village Esper grew up in. No matter how many times he ran through the city and talked to the citizens, it was clear that he was not where he meant to go. It was a completely different place in a different timeline. 

“You didn’t answer my damn question,” Add angrily rubbed the arm where Esper hit him. 

“It’s exactly what it sounds like!” The scientist was irritated at Esper’s insistence on dodging around his answers. “You are my other self. I am from a different timeline.”

“You messed with time?” Add’s eyes grew wide, “Time and space isn’t something you should take lightly!”

“Of course I don’t take it lightly,” Esper sounded insulted. “I spent years researching how to get back to mother while you and that macho idiot went on with your lives, chasing after that nasod whose program is probably not worth the time.”

“What macho idiot?” Add had no idea what he was talking about. “You tried to get back to mother?” 

“And I’ll find a way to get back to the correct timeline,” Esper said harshly. “And make sure that event never happened.”

“Esper, no!” Add threw himself at the time travel and grabbed one leg. 

He suddenly found himself fearing the man’s agenda. What if Esper went back to that time period and erase both of them from existence? Without the event of their parents getting killed, what would happen to them? Would they simply disappear or face a painful death? 

“Get off me, you filth!” Esper used his other foot to kick Add in the face. 

Add fought the urge to show disgust and used his dynamos to pin down the time traveler from moving. The scientist gasped when Esper raised one arm high to summon another portal. The portal started to form, slowly ripping apart space. As the new gate opened, it suddenly reversed, once again closing in and disappearing. 

Add felt a sudden shift in weight. Esper stopped fighting against Add’s weight and collapsed. The time traveler fell on top of Add’s back, causing the Add to lose his breath for a second. Add looked up and saw that Esper had passed out. The scientist sighed as he clawed himself out from Esper’s weight. 

“What a troublesome person,” Add complained out loud to himself. This was not what he signed up for.

* * *

Esper woke up to the same white ceiling. This time, he recognized it before he has been staying here for a certain period of time. He groaned and sat up, not caring that his back ached when he did so. The time traveler noticed that his hand was bandaged, although he could see his blood seeping through already. Did that imposter bandage his injuries? 

“You are such a pain,” Esper turned his head to see Add sitting on a chair beside the bed. Add looked like he has been sitting there for a long time. As if he read his mind, Add said, “To make sure you don’t run off and leave me without some of that data.”

“You are truly predictable,” Esper smirked. “Only interested in upgrading your programs while letting others do the dirty work for you.”

“I’m expecting an apology,” Add said stiffly. 

“For what? For destroying your sad apartment? Because you saved my sorry self? Don’t praise yourself.” He enjoyed the annoyed expression on Add’s face, “The only reason I didn’t bother leaving is because I am weak and I rather not leave a trail of blood behind me when I go.” 

The man chortled as if laughing at his own private joke. The amount of times that creep laughed…it was unnerving, yet Add was slowly getting used to it. Add wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. 

“You are one strange little man,” Add mumbled and sighed. “It must be boring for you to constantly move through different dimensions.”

“Boring?” Esper frowned, unsure of what the scientist’s motives were. 

“Yeah,” he said casually. “I mean, you must be so weak if you have to always run away from your problems.”

“I AM NOT A COWARD!”

“All right, if you say so.” Add was now the one grinning. This was going to be fun. 

“I am not a coward.” Esper repeated himself. 

“I heard you the first time,” the scientist waved his hand at one ear to emphasize himself. However, his facial expression softened slightly, “You don’t have to rush on fixing the past if it’s so important to you. That can always wait.”

The time traveler stared at his other self. “I thought you didn’t want me to do that.”

“I don’t.” Add said, “But that doesn’t discount the fact that you’re a walking blood donator.” He pointed at the several wounded areas on the man. 

Esper didn’t know how to respond to that comment. He felt more uncomfortable than anything. He wasn’t used to having someone care about him. In his original timeline, he kept a safe distance away from Elsword’s party, retaining his position of recording data whenever he could. All of his injuries were tended by himself and he refused to be touched by anyone other than himself. Having someone else take care of that felt foreign and almost suspicious. What was Add going to gain from this? Data? He wished.

“Heh, this is interesting.” Esper uttered, “I think I might change my mind and hand you some of that precious data you wanted.”

“You know that if you stay here, you can easily have access to knowledge on time traveling?” Add asked, “The Dimension Witch lives in this world.” From Esper’s clueless respond, it seemed that he didn’t know that. 

“That is a strong argument. I think I like you.” Add looked aghast at that last statement. Esper watched in amusement of his twin’s reaction. “I think I will choose to stay in this timeline.”

Add sighed. Aisha was going to kill him if she ever found out that there was another him running around with a different agenda. Especially if his other self had an unhealthy obsession with time. Did Aisha’s magic even run on the same format as Esper’s? Add wasn’t looking forward to introducing Esper to the rest of the team and explaining how it was even possible. 

“Welcome to Elrios,” Add rolled his eyes, “Where things are never at peace and everything’s insane.”

“Sounds like my kind of place,” Esper said happily. Add groaned. 


	2. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diabolic Esper decides to take Mastermind on a trip through time and space.

“What is this insanity?” Add dug his fingernails into his hair in frustration. “Ever since you showed up, I’ve been questioning my sanity. I saw three El brats the other day. This is all your doing, isn’t it?” 

Esper laughed at the Mastermind’s accusation, which is probably not a good sign. In no universe would Add ever predict of this happening. It just wasn’t possible, or that’s what he would have said, if he had never met Esper. 

It’s like the gods were mocking him for all the misery he had gone through. Not only were there three Elsword, there were also three Aisha. As if it wasn’t already annoying having to listen to El brat and the mage bicker over petty stuff. The scientist ran into those six when he was out at the marketplace. Three of the Aisha were teaming up on one of the Elswords, the one that called himself Rune Slayer. Two Elswords were trying to save Rune Slayer from his sad fate, the first sign to Add that perhaps he was losing his mind and that he needed to fix that horrendous sleeping habit of his. 

The worse part of the whole ordeal was that those extra persons just wouldn’t go away. The Elswords and Aisha were there for over a week, appearing out of nowhere and making themselves home, much in the same manner of how Add met his other self. After that, Add could have sworn he saw three Rena and Ravens. They must have arrived to his timeline the same way as Esper or they were brought them here by him themselves. Unless this was the Dimension Witch’s doing? Add quickly dismissed that thought. The Dimension Witch wouldn’t waste time bringing over people from other dimensions. She wouldn’t gain anything from it. This had to be Esper’s fault. It had Esper written all over it. The creep had an obsession with the number three or anything that came in the factors of three. 

“So what if it is?” Esper cocked his head to one side and looked at Add with hilarity. “I’m just lightening things up.” 

“I don’t think we share the same definition of ‘lightening’ things up.” Add grumpily took a sip of his coffee. Not that he was ever going to admit it, but Esper really knew how to make a killer coffee. The scientist and the other man were both sitting at the kitchen counter at the apartment they now shared. 

“Well, you’re no fun.” The time traveler pretended to pout. Add had grown accustomed to Esper’s mockery of emotions and chose to ignore it. Esper hummed a corruption of a familiar tune as his magenta eyes glowed. He ripped a chunk of space with one arm, creating a crack in the dimension behind him. 

Add barely raised an eyebrow. A few weeks ago, he would have attacked Esper with questions of how it was scientifically possible. He figured out the hard way that Esper liked to twist his words and give him inaccurate information (“For the sake of research”, he claimed). However, Add screamed when without warning, Esper grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the dimension with him. He dropped his cup of coffee and cursed when the cup shattered, sending broken pieces of ceramic flying across the tiled floor. 

“What the hell are you doing to me?” Add tried to sound angry more than scared. 

The scientist wanted to wrestle away from the bastard, but he feared that Esper would throw him into a far worse fate than the current destination he had in mind. He wasn’t willing to find out if those threats the time traveler made were true or not. Nooo, he didn’t want to find out what kind of hell Esper was capable of. It was already bad enough having to share an apartment with him. Cheap ass landlords… They wouldn’t bother building new rooms for those extra newcomers. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t hurt you~.” Esper sang as they flew through infinite space. Their voices echoed through the dimensions when they spoke. Stars and nebula raced past them as they traveled to the unknown. 

“Explain yourself!” The scientist felt like a mother who caught her child in a bad act. Add glared at Esper, who looked like he was trying to contain himself from a secret he didn’t know. 

“Let’s just say we’ll be taking a detour.” The time traveler ignored the Add’s rage. “I got some business to attend to.”

Before Add could ask him further questions, he suddenly felt a strong force pulling them downward. Without warning, time flowed back in and sent he and Esper crashing to the ground below. His dynamos caught him mid air to soften the fall, but it still hurt landing back first on pieces of metal. Esper landed on his feet beside him with his dynamos floating around him. 

“Are you trying to kill me?” Add nearly shouted at the time traveler. 

“Ha, if I wanted you dead, I can come up with more painful ways to kill you!” Esper told him gleefully. As if he needed to remind him that. “No, you’ll make better use being alive.”

“What’s the point of bringing me here?” The scientist made himself blunt. He had no time for this childish nonsense. 

“Like I said, we’re here for a detour,” he was just as blunt. “Someone will arrive here very soon.” Esper was expecting someone? Who? 

“The least you could do was choose a better place to crash at,” Add complained. 

“Keep complaining and you’ll be more than crashed the next time we change dimensions,” Esper wagged his finger at him. 

“Is that a threat?” Add had his hands formed into tight fists. His dynamos went into attack mode and pointed dangerous at Esper. The time traveler simply laughed off the so-called threats and examined the scientist like he was a newfound experiment. 

“You must be really stupid if you’re picking a fight with that bastard,” a third voice joined the conversation. Both dynamo users turned around to see who the newcomer was. 

“Who are you calling stupid, meathead?” The scientist was not in the mood to be talking to some idiot when he already had to put up with Esper so early in the morning. “A friend of yours?” Add asked Esper with annoyance. Was this the person Esper was looking for? 

The new person shrugged, “I’m not sure if ‘friends’ is the right word.”

“Where are we any way?” Add turned his head around to see where Esper had dragged him to. 

Truth be told, this was the first time Esper had ever took him to another dimension. It was well known that the time traveler would frequently disappear from the apartment to do his own thing, but to where was a mystery. Add only assumed that Esper was either running through different dimensions or fixating over an equation like he always was. 

Add had the presumption that Esper was going to take him to a bizarre world of some sort, perhaps a world full of those unusual monstrosities Esper sometimes brought back as ‘souvenirs’. Instead, Esper brought him to a place that looked very much like Add’s world. It looked like a regular dungeon. Mountains surrounded them and there were monster corpses lying all over the landscape. Did the stranger take down all those monsters by himself? Add found himself perplexed by the stranger’s battle capacities. 

“Does it matter?” The stranger rose one eyebrow, “I should be asking the questions. What are you doing with him?” Esper hardly took notice of the tone used against him, balancing one of his dynamos with a bored expression. 

“Does it look like I’m here by my own free will?” Add huffed.

“Heh,” he smirked. “Guess not. I guess you can say you’re stuck with him for awhile.” 

“Why does that not surprise me?” Add sighed. 

“Wow,” he whistled. Add caught the stranger looking at his clothes. “You’re as uptight as Esper described you.”

They have barely talked for a minute and Add already disliked him. Something about the tone in his voice made him irritating, like he thought that he was above it all. Add felt the other person trace him with his eyes, inspecting him as if determined to take in new information of who he was. He took note that the person barely looked at Esper, as if it was a normal occurrence to see a person crash into the same dimension. 

“Well you’re no princess yourself,” Add said sourly. “What is that atrocious thing you’re wearing? What are you? A hooker?” 

The person in front of him had the worse taste in fashion. Dark purple and black dominated his attire and it looked like his hair defied gravity. The man donned a black waistcoat over a long sleeve shirt; one shoulder had what looked like a piece of armor on it, similar to the one the scientist had. 

“And what is that disgusting thing you’re wearing? Wearing white in the middle of a dungeon? How stupid of you.” The man wasn’t impressed with Add either. “Coming from a guy who looks like a girl, you shouldn’t be complaining. Or should I say, ‘mother’.”

The last bit of Add’s dignity went down the drain at those words. His vision briefly went red as the scientist struggled to maintain his composure and to stop himself from using Phantom Seeker. Days of tending to Esper’s wounds flooded back into the scientist’s mind. He didn’t even try to act motherly and the time traveler thought he was a woman. Okay, so he had long hair, but so did Chung and…you know what, never mind. Anyway, Add felt insulted for being mistaken as a female and the confusion it caused between him and Esper didn’t put him up to a good mood. 

All Add did was check on his injuries, make sure he ate, and looked for him when he went missing from the apartment. The scientist did what he had to do because the man was bleeding to death. He thought it would be a pity to lose an opportunity of gaining new data and/or a new test subject. Even if Esper’s data had a fifty percent chance of error and questionable ethics. Add felt his blood turn cold and glowered at the new guy. Who was this asshole to know this type of information? 

“You told him,” Add hissed at Esper. The time traveler revealed his bright pearly teeth as a response to the accusation.

“Don’t bother,” the man scoffed. “You’re better off making deals with Wally again than getting much information out of this guy.”

“Figures,” the scientist sighed. “Wait, again?” Add gave the man a strange look. “How did you know I made a deal with that fool?”

“Are you fucking stupid?” He asked harshly, “Look at me.” 

The man approached them. The scientist immediately backed away, but the man was faster and used his weapons to probe Add. Add flinched at the touch of his weapons, suddenly aware of their presence and how sharp they were. The man’s weapon were composed of six separate pieces. The weapons were made of a familiar material and hovered around by their master’s command.

One piece flew behind the scientist’s head, acting like a cushion and pushing Add’s head forward. Another pointed at Add’s neck, forcing him to tilt his head slightly back and look at the weapon’s owner in the eye. The other four pieces posed behind their master, ready to pin Add down if he didn’t cooperate. It angered Add that he lost control of the situation and when he realized that this man was clearly taller than him. He reluctantly made eye contact with the stranger, stopping himself on time from gasping. The man had the same face as him. 

“Three…” Add whispered to himself. Esper, himself, and the person in front of him. There were three of them. 

His other self broke into a wide grin. He leaned towards Add. Too close for comfort. Their faces were merely inches apart, enough for Add to feel him breathing down on him. 

“Now that we have met, let’s introduce ourselves.” His other self ignored the disgruntle grunts from Add. “They call me Lunatic Psyker. You must be Add.”

Damn Esper and his obsession with threes.


	3. Dynamo Configuration: REboot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a reason why there are three Adds in the same universe. What is Diabolic Esper trying to do?

Leaves danced in a disoriented pattern, pushed by a gentle breeze before scattering down below. Sunlight ignored the layered clouds and shimmered past them, reaching out far enough to kiss the cool soiled earth. 

Her eyes scanned the fields that surrounded her home. With so few trees in the area, there aren’t many places a child could hide in. She sent him off to gather some chicken eggs an hour ago, making sure that the happy boy listened to her instructions. Be gentle with the chickens, be careful with the eggs, and return to the house when done. After some time has passed and breakfast was getting cold, the housewife went out to fetch her son herself. Where was her child?

The woman turned around to see a beaming child of about eight years old. He shared the same soft white hair she had. The child stared back at her with those big magenta eyes of his. They almost seemed unnatural against the pale blue sky. 

“Add!” She clutched her heart, “Where were you?”

The woman didn’t have to ask. Black and brown chicken feathers stuck on his head. Taking the basket of eggs from the boy’s shaking hands, she eyed the eggs and saw that a couple of them were broken. 

Her son looked like he was going to cry. He usually fetched the eggs each morning with his mother, but today she said she was busy. She said he was now a big boy and that big boys could do these kind of things by themselves. The moment the boy stepped into the chicken house, he was attacked by the fowls with feathers flying everywhere. He then hid inside the garden shed for about an hour before remembering that he was supposed to return to the house. 

“You’re such a mess,” his mother sighed. “Let’s go home and have you cleaned up.” She brushed out the feathers from his head. She saw what looked like eye yolks stuck and smeared in his hair, making his hair the color of old parchment. 

The boy reached out for her hand. As the mother took his hand, her body abruptly shriveled. Her limbs grew stiff and she had her arms reached out with a hoarse voice to cry his name. Her eyes grew wide with her face as white as her hair. He watched in horror as her body shrunk from some unknown force, unable to respond to her shrieks. Black shadowy hands sprouted from the now lifeless ground and took hold of his mother, slamming the woman against the ground and clawing her until her pale skin was painted fresh scarlet. 

The sky was no longer a light blue color. Thunderclouds crowded in the sky, shooting out red thunderbolts around him and his mother. Their house was no longer in sight, replaced by a tall mansion the boy recognized as the place where he was later held as a slave. The boy sprinted away from the building with urgent need, but felt something pulling him against his will. He looked down to see that his feet shadows have pinned him into place, giving him no option to run away. 

“It’s okay.” He heard his mother’s voice echo. “It’s just a dream.” He looked behind his back to see the white haired woman standing with a gentle smile. Wait, but…the body! When he looked back at the dead corpse, it was still there, yet there she was behind him as well. There were two of them. 

“You’re alive?” His voice cracked. Wait, cracked? But he was still a child. That was physically impossible. How was it-?

“Just a dream,” her voice drifted. 

His blood turn to ice. She wasn’t looking at him. His mother’s mind was preoccupied with someone else. His mother was alive, but she had her arms around another child, who also had white hair and magenta eyes like him. It was like looking into a doppelganger. The new child wore the same pair of overalls he once owned, faded from being over washed and dried. His mother continued to talk as if that child was the only one with her. 

“You shouldn’t run off like that,” she patted his head. “I can’t imagine you disappearing like that.” She rushed over her words as if she was out of breath. The mother soothe the new child with those words, barely paying attention to her surroundings. Although the new child shared the same eye color, his blank and glassy eyes made him akin to a nasod. 

“But I am here,” he stressed. Why didn’t she look at him? “Look at me, mother! I’m here!” The boy wanted to rip his mother away from that fake child. “I’m your son! Not him!” 

He screamed in panic as he tried to pull one leg to move himself forward, but fell over and crashed to the ground face first. When he pulled his head up, he held up one arm in shock. His arms were covered with scars of unknown origin. It then came to him that his limbs have elongated. Arms and legs were too long to belong to a child, more fitting for a young adult. He reached over to touch his head to see that his hair had grown longer. Glaring down at his chest was a necklace with a glowing magenta gem. Esper’s eyes widened. 

“Keh, her son.” A new voice approached them. “No son of her’s would be so pathetic.” 

The voice belonged to a person with similar physical features as the child, but his body and face was that of a man. His hair was spiked up and his clothes was dominated by black and dark purple. Lunatic Psyker? What was he doing here? He didn’t belong here. 

“Indeed,” the second voice drawled. “To think someone like this would have the nerve to claim himself as Add. If anything, I’m the one that should be called Add.” 

Mastermind! Esper recognized that condescending tone of his anywhere. The scientist held his nose high when he spoke in an eloquent style that didn’t suit him. The man wore a well-tailored suit that didn’t belong in this nightmare and had his hair tied up in a ponytail. He too shared the same facial features as Esper and Lunatic Psyker. 

“Why the hell are you two here?” Esper growled. “This wasn’t part of the calculation!”

“Calculations?” Mastermind jeered, “More like a collection of disastrous errors!”

“You think we’ll let you be the only one to get back to mom?” The other man glared at the scientist, “And don’t make me laugh! I’m the one that should be called Add!” 

Esper crawled on his fours. His body shook when he used his thin arms to support himself back up. He steadily walked over to his two counterparts. Was this how it was going to be? The time traveler held up one arm as he always did when he prepared himself to open a new portal. Before he could go further beyond that action, two sets of dynamos zoomed in a blink of an eye and pinned Esper to the floor. Of course. He should have known. 

“You fucking bastards,” Esper hated seeing their disgusting faces peering at him from above. Why couldn’t he command his dynamo to fight back? He glanced down to see that his necklace was gone, then turned his head to the side, just to see her again. His mother was still standing in that same position with that fake child, not moving since the two tracers interfered. She didn’t give those two acknowledgement either. 

“You’re so useless without this necklace of yours,” Mastermind swung the necklace around one hand that must have retrieved by his dynamo.

“I guess it’s not so pointless working with you,” Lunatic Psyker joined in with the other. 

Esper’s mouth was still free. He took advantage of this and shouted, “Mother! Help me! Look at me!” Damn it, why wasn’t she looking at him? “Can’t you see me? I’m your son! Add!” He frantically darted his eyes around. “Mother!”

He was awed when she finally noticed his presence and turned to look at him in the eye. She whispered, “You’re not Add.” Her words were barely intelligible. “You’re not my son.” 

Esper opened his eyes and screamed.

* * *

It was that nightmare again. 

It wasn’t the usual nightmare Diabolic Esper had, but it was similar to the rest of them. Of course his mother didn’t die that way and none of that happened. He scoffed at the thought of Lusa or Add ever managing to take him down. Nightmares are illogical things that like to corrupt his memories and knowledge of definite truth. He looked down to see drool on one sleeve. The young man wiped it off with some disgust. To think he would fall asleep again while working on his calculations.

Esper stared out the window of his bedroom. It was raining outside and Add would yell at him for tracking mud into the tiny apartment. As fun as it would be to piss off Add and let him chase him with his pitiful dynamo, Esper wasn’t in a mood for that today. It appeared that his papers were spared from his drool and rain. 

How much he hated being cooped inside. How could Mastermind tolerate staying inside his study room for hours, if not days? After spending years locked in a library, Esper hated being contained in limited spaces. He could spend hours calculating the required equations, but he abhorred not being able to feel the sunlight touch his skin and tell him the reality. He was in the future and his family was dead. Only the more reason to bring him to his final decision. 

“Esper?”

The time traveler moved his eyes over to the voice’s owner. Lunatic, no, Lusa, was standing at his doorway, ignoring Esper’s unpleased expression. Unlike Add, Esper never bothered locking his door with complicated locks. What was the point since no one bothered approaching his room? Besides, Lusa would probably try to break through his door if he locked it like Add did. What was he doing here?

“You look like hell,” Lusa said without indicating signs of hidden motives. “Mind if I join?” He took Esper’s quiet mumbling as a yes and went over to sit in a chair beside Esper’s bed. It was the same chair the mastermind sat in months ago when he was tending to Esper’s wounds. 

“What do you want?” Esper snapped. Was there more than just the shadows under his eyes that indicated that he looked like ‘hell’, as Lusa put it? 

He was in the middle of thinking. Papers with equations lay all over the desk placed next to his bed. A white board was propped on his lap with the time traveler frowning. Messy unintelligible writing covered them both. Markers of different colors crossed over one another with some writing being cut off by the board’s edge. 

“I’m worried about you.” 

If it wasn’t for his moving lips, Esper would have thought that he was hallucinating. Since when did Lusa show concern for much? Unless it was reserved for Add… Or was he always like that and Esper chose to ignore it? He tried to remember a moment like this, but his memories failed him. Too many timelines of too many possibilities came to him. Which one happened in this timeline?

“I just wanted to talk to you,” Lusa said. “You’ve been locking yourself up for days that even Add is worried.” What would Add know? The scientist was just as bad about the whole locking oneself in for days deal. 

Huh? Esper looked up from his work to see the Lunatic Psyker hold up a mug to his face. It was a purple ceramic mug decorated with cats and hearts, clearly bought by Add. The scientist had an atrocious sense of style, even in silverware. The time traveler peeked into the mug to see that it was filled almost to the brim with hot chocolate. It looked like it was just made; it emitted a strong smell that suggested that Lusa added too much sugar. 

“Add wanted me to give this to you,” was Lusa’s answer to the questions flying through Esper’s mind. “And I heard you screaming.” 

Esper frowned at the kind gesture, but took the mug from the brawler and took a sip. He ignored the jolt from the too hot drink. He then took another sip, savoring the sweet aftertaste it left on the tip of his tongue. After another drink, the time traveler looked out the window again. It stopped raining, but it was still wet and damp outside. Great. He didn’t want to leave this building now. 

He looked to the side with peripheral vision, but saw that Lusa was still there. How long was the brawler planning to stay here? Did Add send him here? Despite the arguments that erupted between Esper and the scientist, they tolerated each other and often exchanged data on days like this. It is Lusa who kept interaction minimal, careful to keep his distance when concerning Esper. 

“So,” Lusa broke the silence. “Was it the same nightmare?”

“No,” Esper said shortly. 

“How did she die?”

“None of your concern,” he gritted his teeth. Esper was already regretting the conversation. 

“This world is strange.” Lusa switched the topic when he noticed the discomfort it caused for Esper. He leaned forward to inspect Esper’s work. “It’s much like the other world, yet it’s different.” 

The same dungeons, same towns, yet different people inhibited this world. While people like Ara and Raven still existed in this universe, they chose different paths as solutions for similar problems as their counterparts. It was curious how the same person could have many different possibilities. 

“You make it sound like it’s bad.” Bitterness dripped on Esper’s words. While his counterparts continued to live towards the future, he remained digging himself into the past, grasping at straws that may or may not exist. 

“I like it.” Lusa had an unreadable expression. “It’s more peaceful than my world.” Esper wanted to laugh. More peaceful. Dungeons were still crowded with new monsters and enemies ready to threaten humanity. 

“What are you really here for? Out with it.” Esper was growing tired of the petty talk from Lusa. This was not his style. The brawler today was too patient. Trying too hard to get something out of him. That soothing tone he was trying to use on him was beyond creepy. What was it? 

“Can I not have a normal conversation with my other self?” Lusa rose one brow, scrutinizing the mug. “If you don’t finish that drink, I’ll drink it all.”

“Do that and I’ll finish you,” Esper hissed. As if to emphasize his point, Esper let out a jolt of electricity and purposely missed the Lunatic Psyker when he aimed at his direction. Lusa didn’t flinched and instead stared at Esper’s mug. Esper gulped down the rest of the drink with anger. He fought the urge to complain about how hot the drink still was, refusing to show weakness to Lusa. 

“Keh, heh, heh, now you’re talking!” Lusa grinned, acting like Esper wasn’t trying to fry him just then. 

“Hmmph, I have no time to fight a pathetic fool like you.” Esper was irritated by Lusa’s happy attitude on all this. 

“What’s bothering you?” Lusa frowned. “You were supposed to be pumped up from that comment.” He bit the bottom of his lip. “This is more than just a nightmare, isn’t it?” 

“Nothing.”

“Is it about mom?” 

Mother. How long has it been since Esper last saw her? If going by his own lifespan, then it would have been at least ten years. The time traveler must have rewind time so many times that it could amount to decades.

Although his family was bigger, mother was the one Esper remembered the most. She was the one who encouraged him to gain interest in machinery and reading books. To see her smile one more time, if she was still alive, then he wouldn’t have to suffer as a slave and become a prisoner of that dreaded library. He would never have to worry about finding a way to go back in time in the first place. The past was where he belonged, not the future. 

Esper’s resisted the urge to send his dynamos after the brawler. How dare he talked about their mother like that. As if he understood him. He didn’t have nightmares about her every night. Lusa wasn’t the one who spent a lifetime chasing after a nearly impossible dream. What made him think he had the right to talk about mother when he barely looked at the past? The time traveler clutched his hands into tight fists in silent rage. 

“Esper,” Lusa let out a haughty sigh. Esper then realized that he was speaking because of the long awkward pause between them. “She’s not coming back.” 

Shut up. 

“Add is right,” the brawler didn’t seem to notice or care about the nasty looks Esper was sending him. “You shouldn’t mess with time and space. Not like this. You’re going to get yourself into a bigger mess if you don’t watch out.” 

Shut up. 

“You told me yourself,” he continued. “You tried so many times and failed.” The same bullshit many others before him said to Esper. “Why put yourself so deep into the past?”

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

No, he could do it. Esper was certain of it. Just a couple of miscalculations, that’s all. He could stop his family from dying. He could see his mother breath again. What Lusa and the others said was just nonsense. All of it. Add and Lusa just didn’t want him to succeed while they continue to live their sad deplorable lives in the future. 

“This is why you brought the others here, isn’t it?” Lusa’s voice grew quiet. 

“Define ‘others’.” Esper smirked. Did Lusa figure it out yet? He was wondering how long it would take for his counterparts to see what his plan was. Add seemed to have given up a long time ago and let Esper run loose with his unorthodox motives. Lusa was the more wary of the two and always seemed to keep an eye on Esper like he was a time bomb. 

“The extras!” The brawler grew impatient. “How this world now has three of each person in the group!” 

How Elsword managed to maintain a united group was through charisma and sheer stubbornness. It was hard not to notice how one day one of his teammates showed up with extra people that shared the same faces, although it was much harder to accept it as reality. It was more than bizarre finding out that there were three Elesis and three Eves. Well, Lusa didn’t mind the latter, but three Elesis was not something he wanted to mess with. 

“Bravo,” Esper snickered. “Do you want an A+ for that?”

“Quit joking around!” The other shouted, no longer caring if anyone else could hear him panic. “You’re trying to do something weird by bringing in those extras!”

The first time was an accident. Esper didn’t mean to bring over an extra person over to another universe because he didn’t even realize that it was possible. Once the time traveler unlocked his powers, he found a separate timeline where his younger self remained happy and with a living family, something he always desired. Before Esper could declare destruction on that timeline, the effects of his powers reversed him back to his current timeline. What shocked Esper the most was that there was an extra person with him when he returned. His calculations later pointed that it was due to him existing in a timeline where he didn’t belong. He stayed in that timeline long enough to distort it to a small degree, increasing his chances of creating copies of the same person from different timelines. Or at least that was the theory.

“How long did you know this?” Esper wanted to know. 

“Ever since you brought Add to me.” Lusa said coolly. “You’re insane if you thought it was a good idea to bring copies of people to the same dimension. What are you trying to do?”

“Why don’t you use your brain for once and think?” Esper’s smug attitude turned into an amused one. He enjoyed the frustrated growling he earned from the insult. 

“I should have known you were up to no good,” the brawler growled. “After all that effort you put into bringing all of us together…”

“You mean you and Add?” Esper hummed. “Yes, it does seem odd for me to bring the three of us together.” 

Esper created distortions in space every time he jumped around time and dimension. Each distortion increased his chances of bringing back an extra person that shouldn’t belong to that new universe. All of the people Esper brought back associated themselves with Elsword in some manner. To be specific, people who had high levels of energy and could utilize the power of the El Shards, such as Elsword or Aisha. 

If the timelines already got slightly distorted from Esper staying in them for short amounts of time, having extra people staying for longer periods of time would cause the universe to grow very unstable, especially if those people were constantly emitting high levels of energy. That wouldn’t be difficult to do since the constant invasion of monsters and enemies have caused dungeon raids to become a norm. 

In some ways, the universe could be compared to a computer. If the universe had too many copies of the same person or program, then it may cause the universe to slow down and crash due to the struggle of supporting itself. In an unstable state, there were three possible outcomes. The universe may either continue to spiral itself out of control, shut down and bring about the end of the universe, or, he could prevent mother from dying by… 

“You’re trying to force reboot this timeline?” Lusa realized. Esper wasn’t trying to rewind time. He was trying to restart time. A clean slate where he could start from scratch. “And why three? Why that number?” 

“Why not three?” Esper mirrored back, “Two is too little, but four is too much. Why waste time going back and forth four times for each person? Three is just right, enough to cause a little chaos.” He chortled when he said this. 

Why did it have to be this universe? Why did Esper have to choose this particular one? Or did Esper simply choose this one because of pure coincidence? Lusa felt dizzy thinking of the possibilities of this universe’s faith if Esper caused enough distortion in the universe. 

Those calculations Esper made… Lusa glared at the scrunched up paper on Esper’s lap. The time traveler was always obsessed with those number that meant little to anyone else. Not that Lusa admitted it, but Esper’s work had always fascinated him to some degree. The brawler’s curiosity in going back in time was once prominent, but then he became a Psychic Tracer and was more interested in perfecting his nasod armor, leading him to eventually lose focus in looking to the past. Not that he would be truthful, but Esper scared him. He couldn’t help but hold emotions of fear for what he could have become. 

If Esper’s calculations indicated anything, the universe could reboot itself as long as the time traveler created an impact with his powers. In layman’s term, Esper just needed to initiate the reaction by creating a hole in time, similar to what he did when traveling to other dimensions. This universe was barely maintaining itself because of the overflow of extras and energy. Esper could easily accomplish his goals right now by opening time and space, so why didn’t Esper do anything yet? Was it doubt? Uncertainty? Fear? What was stopping him? 

Esper looked down at the now empty mug in his hands. The taste of hot chocolate still lingered in his mouth. He suddenly felt uncomfortable, aware that Lusa’s eyes were following his every move. Lusa never really did like him. Yet he here was, offering hot chocolate to the time traveler. 

“You lied,” Esper finally said and waved the mug at Lusa. “Add doesn’t make hot chocolate like this.” Lusa puts in a lot of sugar, but the scientist lumps in even more into hot chocolate. Giving sugar to Add is never a good idea. 

“You’re insane,” Lusa groaned.

“Diabolic, remember?” The time traveler did a slight bow and grinned. 

The brawler grew irritated. “You can’t just restart the timeline like this. That’s not fair for any of us.”

“You know what isn’t fair?” The time traveler sneered, “How mother died and we were left to become slaves and go through this.” He rolled up one sleeve to reveal scars all over one arm. Lusa knew there were more of those underneath that plug suit Esper wore. “This is for our sake,” he said. “For mother.” His struggled to retain an even pleasant tone; there was a sound of insanity in his voice. 

“No,” the other shook his head. “This is all you. All you care about is yourself.”

“And that’s wrong?” Esper mocked him. “To want to avoid pain and suffering through those years of hell? It’s only natural for us humans to never want to experience pain.” 

“This isn’t supposed to happen,” Lusa whispered. “If you change time, what’s going to happen to the future? We’ll be erased.” He didn’t want to die or be abolished from existence. The brawler didn’t like the stuff he went through as a child, but it made him who he was and he was afraid to see what would happen to him if Esper succeeded in this scheme. His words fell on deaf ears.

“You know something funny?” Esper’s voice was an octave higher than it should have been. “It’s been fun. Meeting you and Add. Watching you two fight like idiots.” He cackled when he saw Lusa look unsure on how to respond.

“You know those extras I brought in?” He continued, “I lied. I really didn’t need to bring all of them here. I bought them because I was bored. I thought it would be interesting to watch everyone fight over each other just for fun.” 

It was more than entertaining to see the three Eves figure out how to handle Add when they caught the scientist trying to steal their code again. Needless to say, the mastermind stayed a good distance away from them after that. Add was mumbling something about ‘never needing their codes anyway’. 

“But…” Esper paused, tracing the mug with one finger. “I wasn’t lying when I said that I’m glad that I met you both. Truly I do. It’s nice…to have someone care about you, even if they’re assholes like me. Can’t be helped since both of you are me.”

Lusa stared at the time traveler. Did Esper openly admitted that he enjoyed his and Add’s company? For once, Esper wasn’t wearing that pseudo shit-eating grin he always had. The time traveler looked younger without those crude facial lines, magenta eyes without the black sclerae. He almost looked regretful, as if apologizing to the brawler for something that he shouldn’t have done. Esper grabbed hold of the jeweled necklace around his neck and exchanged a tired look to Lusa. 

“Thanks for the hot chocolate, Lusa.” He waved the mug in the air, trying to sound cheerful. “It was nice.”

Everything was happening too quickly. Lusa wasn’t ready for this. He thought he was going to die when he was left isolated in that library, but that was then. After he arrived to the future, he was certain he was going to live. Dying today was not something he wanted to think about, yet his counterpart was going to declare it today in less than a few moves. It wasn’t a maybe or an if, Esper was indefinitely going to reboot this timeline. The time traveler already had his hand partially up in the air, a habit of his when about to jump through dimensions. Esper’s dynamos were already posed behind their master. 

“So they were right when they say that you are your worst enemy,” Lusa’s said flatly. “This is how it ends. Was this all for nothing?” He shouted those last few words. 

He didn’t have to explain what he meant for Esper to understand. Did those months spent with him and Add accumulate to nothing for the time traveler? Meeting people, learning to become part of society again, did they fail to reach Esper? Those days of eating meals together, running through dungeons together, and sometimes exchanging information…were they all simply part of Esper’s plan? 

“I like you and Add,” Esper’s lips barely moved. “It wasn’t for nothing.” His lips curled down, “But I need mother more than I need you.” 

Lusa stayed frozen in his place as Esper shouted, “Dynamo Configuration!”

The rest of his attack was inaudible because he opened a new portal, destroying the roof above them, forming a pink crack into the dark blue sky. The room shook, causing trash and debris to fly around them. Books and loose papers tossed into the air before being shredded by an unknown force. Lusa felt the floor beneath him grow weak due to the building losing its support in its structures. 

“Lusa!”

The brawler heard his voice. He saw Add running into the crumbling room, his long hair blowing in his face. His tail coat ruffled behind him when he reached out to Lusa with an extended arm. Apocalypse floated behind the scientist, unsure of where the source of the threat was. The floating cube shot out laser beams to where Esper was standing, but the diabolic man easily jumped away. 

“Lusa! What did he do?” There was alarm in his expression when he screamed at Lusa. Add appeared to have figured out quickly that this was Esper’s doing. 

“Add!” Lusa looked back to take Add’s arms, desperate to take his grasp. They were merely a couple of meters away from each other. So close, yet so far. 

Lusa felt a gravitational tug from from the portal. Before Lusa could take in Add’s hand, something forced them apart, sending both he and Add away from each other. Light shone down on both of them with great intensity, forcing Lusa to close his eyes. 

The last thing Lusa heard was Esper’s distant laughing.


	4. Dooms Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunatic Psyker lost his memories and is haunted by strange dreams of a man who shares his face. Why do those dreams keep calling him Lusa?

Chaos. It was the only word that could describe this mess. A segment of the dark blue sky was ripped out, revealing a spasm of bright magenta and purple. Debris flooded the empty space, ignoring gravity and floating alongside Lunatic Psyker. His body felt light and weightless. He hovered in the sky, high enough to oversee the big city below. Everything looked so tiny and insignificant. 

It then occurred to the berserker that he was not alone. Turning his head to the side, he saw a man dressed in white. The man wore a purple vest underneath his white hooded trench coat. When Psyker glanced over to see his face, he was shocked to see a single tear streak down the man’s cheek.

“Esper,” the brawler read his lips. The man’s eyes narrowed when he uttered the foreign name. Psyker first noticed that the man wore his hair in a long ponytail. He felt the man’s eyes staring into his.

Who are you? He wanted to ask. Where are we? Why did this feel so familiar? There were so many questions at the tip of his tongue, leaving Psyker speechless as he stared at him. The two of them were close enough to grab hold to one another, but when the brawler extended his arm out, he failed to get close. It was difficult to navigate through the disorientated space of debris. Approaching the man was like swimming against a rough current.

“Did what?” The berserker at last found his voice again. Who? The brawler didn’t understand. None of this made sense. What was the man talking about? Who was Esper? What did he do? Esper wasn’t even a name from what his knowledge told him, but why did it feel like it had relevance?

He regretted asking. Worry clouded the other’s eyes; he bit his thumb with a look of betrayal. The brawler didn’t recognize him, yet he felt guilty for hurting the man’s feelings. 

“You’re already forgetting…” He said with sadness; his voice was slightly higher than Psyker’s. “I suppose the same will happen to me too.” 

Already…forgetting? There wasn’t enough time for Psyker to think of a proper reaction. What was he supposed to say? With some effort, he pushed himself forward, almost tumbling into the man in white. He placed one hand on the man’s shoulder for support, as a way of comforting him without getting too awkward about it. 

Up close, Psyker then noticed that the man was thin in comparison to himself. His shoulders were slouched as if he had already given up. The man was tall, but had a lanky figure suggesting that he didn’t eat or exercise much. He had bags under his eyes and a pale face that, much to his surprise, revealed little blemishes. 

“Esper,” the man whispered again. “He restarted this timeline. You remember what happened to mother, don’t you?” Of course he remembered. “He’s trying to stop that from happening.” 

These statements left Psyker bewildered. Restart this timeline? Stop what from happening? Her death? But why did his mother’s life matter so much to this person? Whoever this Esper person was, he had a bad feeling about this. The brawler wanted to understand what the other man was saying, but more questions clouded his thoughts the more he tried. He felt like he had jumped to the middle of a movie and was expected to make sense of what was going on.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to us.” The man in white continued; there was great urgency in his voice. “If he gets what he wants, I’m not sure if either of us will exist anymore. Our memories are already deteriorating. I’m not sure how long I’m going to last before I forget you too.” 

“Why are you telling me all this?” The brawler couldn’t take it anymore, “I can’t even remember you. Who are you?”

“Are you blind as your brain is full of meat?” His eyes were hidden by his white bangs, letting out a humorless laugh. “Just who do you think you’re talking to?”

Without warning, the man leaned forward, chests almost touching. Despite being shorter than the berserker, the man tugged on his shirt collar, forcing Psyker to look down at him. With a thin figure, it was easy to mistaken that the man in white was weak. However, he had a strong grip; he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead gently against the brawler’s cheek. Psyker held in his breath, caught by surprise of the sudden intimacy.

Lunatic Psyker awkwardly wrapped around his shoulder in a poor attempt to comfort him. The brawler could feel the man’s body shake under his arms as he attempted to soothe the upset man. As Psyker gazed at his face, he noticed a pink streak identical to his running down the man’s left cheek.

Psyker frowned, finally noticing that the man shared the same colored eyes as his. Although there were fewer lines on the other’s face, it was familiar, almost identical. A name snapped into place. 

“Mastermind!” He remembered. “Add!”

Add’s eyes snapped open in recognition of the name. Their eyes met for a few seconds before the scientist pulled him into a tight embrace, fearful of losing his grip on the brawler. His skin was cool to the touch, cold and damp from what felt like rain.

Even though they just met, Psyker didn’t want to let go. He wanted time to stop just for a moment and let him catch his breath, to stay like this forever and ask the man more questions. He didn’t feel ready to face reality just yet, not when the world seemed to be spiraling beyond his control.

“I know this won’t mean much to you,” Add said, making sure each of his words were audible. 

He pressed his forehead against Psyker’s, looking at him in the eye. The brawler was too shocked to step away. 

“But…if you do come out alive…” His tone suddenly went harsh. “I want you do whatever you can to stop your other idiotic self from messing with time again. He has done more damage than any man should be capable of.” 

Add then let out a crude, hollow laugh. A laugh of defeat or insanity? The brawler was too scared to ask. Was he implying that the ‘other idiotic self’ was the same Esper that abused time? None of this made sense. Stopping his other self, the fact that there were three of himself (or possibly more), and… It was too much to compute. How was he expected to take it all in without questions? 

Before more could be said, an explosion sounded off from a distance. Psyker turned to see that the world around them was collapsing. The rip in the sky was expanding, clawing at the dark sky, threatening to swallow it up. Not a good sign. 

Psyker was about to make a comment on what was happening, but saw that Add wasn’t paying attention. The mastermind was more focused on him, giving the brawler a haunting look. Before much could be said or done, what sounded like firecrackers prompted Psyker to jump from a falling building heading his way. Likewise, the mastermind went the other way to avoid a meteor of debris. 

“Promise me!” Add hollered back, eyes hardened with electricity sparking from his left eye. “Promise me you’ll take him down!” 

His facial expression changed, revealing a wild look in his eyes, baring his teeth, and reaching out to him with one hand. Psyker froze, forgetting that the world was falling apart and that both of them would soon be gone. How much longer could this world stand? 

“Answer me, Lusa!” Psyker stared at the other man in confusion. Who’s Lusa? “Why won’t you answer me?” Add’s voice cracked, noticing the lack of acknowledgement to that name. “Lusa!” 

* * *

Psyker woke up with a startled expression, cold sweat running down his forehead. Reaching behind himself, the base of his neck felt unbearably hot against his cold palm in the warm humid weather. He blinked a couple of times before bringing his head up from his desk, eyes darting around to remind himself where he was. The room was dark and dim. The sole source of light came from the sun’s rays, peeking through the shutters. 

Eyes closed, the berserker rubbed his temples, feeling the wrinkles in his forehead. He didn’t need a mirror to see that his cheeks were pink when he touched one side of his face. With a barely audible sigh, he left the study room, grabbed some clothes from his room, and trudged to the bathroom. 

Eyes snapped open when water hit his head in the shower. His shoulder blades tensed when he rolled them as he stretched, curling up his fingers and cracking his knuckles. 

“Lusa!” His voice echoed in the brawler’s mind again. 

He punched the glass shower door, ignoring the shock it sent to his fist, and the strange tingling feeling it left. The berserker shook his head. Where did that name come from? His name was Add, the name he was birthed with, not Lusa. Why did his dreams keep calling him that? Why did the man’s voice sound so much like his? Similar yet full of sorrow and worry? Why couldn’t he remember if they ever met and how? He ran through his memories but found no answer. Only when his shoulders shook did Psyker noticed the water was cold. 

“Fuck,” he uttered to himself, stumbling out of the shower. His dynamo said that he slept for eleven hours, yet he still felt sluggish. His mind processed everything with a slow pace that left him impatient, restless. 

The sharp smell of caffeine floated in kitchen when he prepared the coffee. He smiled when he inhaled the pleasant aroma. The smell clarified his thoughts and made him alert. While the coffee machine was busy, Psyker went to set up the table. Breakfast was going to be leftovers from dinner, so all he had to do was heat up the food.

Eyebrows rose in annoyance when there was a knock at the front door. He checked the time, seeing that it was only half past seven. Pausing at the kitchen, unwilling to leave, but he left anyway and rubbed his eyes when he answered the door. 

Sunlight flooded the interior part of his apartment when he opened the door. He shielded one eye from the blinding sun with his hand, looking at the visitor with his other eye. 

Crimson eyes looked up at Psyker. He had red spiky hair, dressed in armor with his sword wielded on his back. Easily towering over him, Psyker saw that no one was with the Lord Knight, a rare sight. Elsword always had a few people with him. This time, not even the purple haired girl or the elf was present. 

“Add, good day.” Elsword greeted him politely. 

“What do you want?” He didn’t mean to make it sound menacing, but he was tired and wasn’t up to tolerating the team today. Yes, he was part of the search party, but he still preferred periods of separation from the group when possible. It was strange…being able to talk to other people, not just the mental conversations he held with himself. 

“You’ve been locking yourself up for days,” Elsword said, cutting straight to the point. “What happened?” The words caught Psyker off guard. Has it been that long? The brawler couldn’t find the right words to respond with. 

“Everyone’s been worried about you.”

“Are they, now?” Psyker wanted to laugh at Elsword’s claim. He would be lying if he claimed that he was well adjusted to communicating with people again and that he was comfortable with getting close to them. To be able to talk to others freely was something strange to him even after three years of escaping the library. It wasn’t that he hated people, but rather that he felt distinct like he didn’t belong here. Something felt out of place.

“Breakfast?” Elsword turned his head towards the direction of where the kitchen was. 

“Yeah,” the berserker said. “Coffee?” Maybe if he gave some to Elbrat, the knight would leave him alone and bid good day. Also, he didn’t want to think about the possibility of a kitchen fire because he forgot to keep an eye on the food. 

“Sure,” Elsword gave a slow nod.

When he stepped inside Psyker’s apartment, he didn’t comment on the messy state of the place. Besides the clothes being neatly arranged on hangers or folded over at the chair, everything was placed in an unpredictable manner that only made sense to the brawler. Books were scattered all over the floor, most of them opened to pages of concepts the knight wouldn’t be able to comprehend even with the help of a certain mage.

They only had to pass a few obstacles before reaching the kitchen, which was adjacent to the front door. Luckily for both of them, the kitchen was still in one piece with the coffee just about ready to be served. While the brawler went to turn off the coffee maker, Elsword looked at the kitchen with some interest. It was the first time Psyker let the knight step into the apartment. Unlike the rest of the place, the kitchen was oddly clean. The floor and sink were spotless; all of the plates and utensils neatly stored away. 

“You’re expecting company?” Elsword asked when Psyker brought the coffee pot over to the table. 

“Huh?” His confusion answered the knight’s question. The brawler looked down to see three cups and three plates placed at the table. 

Psyker lifted one of the cups, examining the tacky design of cats and hearts on the purple ceramic surface. When did he acquire such shitty taste? He shrugged this off, pouring coffee into the purple cup for himself before getting another cup for Elsword. 

“You’ve been like this since we left Henir’s Time and Space…” Elsword said between sips. Psyker locked himself in for long periods of time, always forgetful and deep in thought with something else. Elsword fought the urge to cringe when he took a big swallow of the coffee. The drink was sharp and bitter. The knight grabbed a packet of sugar cubes and ripped open the bag, dropping a couple of them into his drink before stirring it with a spoon. “It’s because of that thing, isn’t it?” He frowned, eyeing the Piece of Time and Space. The blue piece was stored in a small glass bottle, which hung from a necklace cord.

The mysterious piece emitted warm radiation, glowing a faint blue when Psyker held the bottle up to his eye. It was one of many that he had in his possession. The rest of the pieces were scattered throughout the layout of his apartment. 

His need for knowledge got the better of him. He wanted to see if the pieces had more purpose beyond crafting weapons and armor. Ever since the brawler experimented with the fragments, the dreams and nightmares arrived, tearing at his unconscious mind, demanding for his attention and curiosity. He only remembered parts of those dreams and nightmares, made up of events and people that felt familiar to him. The more he tried to recall those dreams, the more distant they felt from reality. 

“So what if it is?” Psyker asked, sending a challenging look to the knight.

“I heard you talking in your sleep the other day,” Elsword said. “The others heard you a few weeks back when we were camping. Who’s Mastermind?” He wore a serious expression that didn’t suit a sixteen year old. 

“What?” The brawler’s scrunched up his eyebrows. Mastermind…something about that title clicked in his memory. Memories of the dream were always slipping from his mind. He was already forgetting what happened. 

There was some hesitation from Elsword before he added, “You then kept crying and repeating your name. What’s going on?”

What’s going on, indeed. Psyker formed a crude smile at the knight’s question, wondering the same question himself. Those dreams were the same each time, always about him and that other person. The harder he tried to remember the other’s face, the more blurred his memory became. No matter how many times he dreamt the same sequence, it was always him waking up in a morning shock he should have been overcome a long time ago. 

“What does it matter?” Psyker asked, “It’s just a dream, isn’t it?”

“If something’s bothering you, we can…”

“It’s pointless to talk about something that doesn’t exist,” he almost snarled, not caring how heartless he sounded. 

“Doesn’t exist, yet strong enough to make you a hermit,” Elsword pointed out.

“Aren’t you running late for something?” The brawler growled, taking note that the young teen was in his battle armor. 

“To be honest, I came here because we need another person to help us run through this area…” He admitted, scratching the back of his head. “Aisha insisted and… Rena was worried…” 

_So those two sent him over, huh?_ He thought to himself before saying out loud, “Then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” Psyker stood up and grabbed the cup from him. 

“But…” Elsword stood up as well, eyes trying to understand Psyker’s unreadable expression. 

“Out,” the berserker said in a flat tone. “You’ve done more than enough.”

* * *

 _Was this place always that big?_ Psyker thought when he walked past a couple of rooms to get to his study room. 

The apartment complex had a small front door reception area, a living room with bookshelves lined up and a couple of couches set up at the center. There was a kitchen, his bedroom, a study room, some extra rooms that could double as guest rooms if needed. Those extra rooms were bare, only holding extra lab equipment and other miscellaneous items the brawler collected from his journey. 

Psyker thought of the three cups and plates he set up today before Elsword arrived. This wasn’t the first time it happened. He had the impression that it was because he thought of his mother and father being with him, but that didn’t make sense. That habit didn’t emerge until after he started researching the Pieces of Time and Space. As a child, his mother had to force him to set up the table, so that wasn’t the case either. Psyker sometimes arrived back to his apartment and peeked into one of the spare rooms, expecting someone to be in there. Were these actions a sign of loneliness? Why did it feel like something was missing? 

Psyker took out the cork and flipped a small glass bottle upside down. Warmth radiated from the Piece of Time and Space in the palm of his hand, glowing faintly blue against the bright sunlight from the window. The piece he had was the first piece he had obtained from the dungeon known as Henir’s Time and Space, a unique place with no perceivable bounds. In other words, the place did not belong to any particular time or universe, instead running on its own record with little influence from external forces. 

When he first stepped into Henir’s Time and Space, he felt odd, like someone was watching them. Running through the dungeon was not an issue when he was aided by Elsword and the others. It was after staying in the dungeon for a long period of time did he notice its subtle effects on him. When they left the area with the fragments, he wasn’t hit by sudden images or memories. He felt light headed, the kind of feeling one had after hours of reading a book or learning new material. 

Over the last few weeks, with the fragments in his possession, he started remembering random pieces of information that had little relation to his current life: like the habit of setting things up in threes. And when Psyker drank the coffee he prepared for himself and Elsword, he nearly choked, the drink too bitter. It was like the coffee was made for someone else with different preferences. How did he forget to add sugar? 

Theses pieces, the berserker glared at the Piece of Time and Space. They’re the key to this. They had to be. If he did more experiments, if he could look into them more…maybe he can find the source of his problems. He wanted answers. Something to tell him that he wasn’t making this all up, that there was a reason why he had these memories and dreams coming to him for little known reasons. 

“I see you’re enjoying your new toy.”

Psyker almost dropped the piece in surprise, moving away from the voice with haste. The voice belonged to a man, who approached the brawler from the shadows, dressed in a black coat with simplistic red designs. Spiky white hair similar to his own, his face concealed by a black mask, revealing a single glowing orange eye staring into his. 

“Glave!” The brawler gasped. What did he want?

Psyker’s mouth went dry, horrified to see the keeper of Henir’s Time and Space in his apartment. Psyker never liked him. Glave held an omnipresent air, knowing details of their lives from some mysterious source. It didn’t help that his information was always accurate and on the dot. 

With that creepy mask, it is impossible to read his thoughts. While Psyker never saw him fight or use any of his powers, he knew better than to piss off the time keeper. It would not be wise to anger someone who held the key to time and space. On that same note, Psyker was less than eager to converse with him. 

Psyker closed his eyes when Glave approached him, waiting for a punishment of some kind. With hesitance, he opened them to see Glave reading at the paper littering his study desk. The time keeper picked up one of the fragments scattered on the desk, skimming some of Psyker’s messy, inconsistent writing before turning back to his direction. 

“To think that child could do this much damage,” Glave drawl. “Unbelievable… I suppose that would explain why you’re so equally foolish.”

“Foolish for what?” He dared to ask. Who was Glave talking about? 

“Most travelers would simply take these to be crafted,” Glave explained, referring to the Piece of Time and Space. “Yet you are one of the stupid few who choose to delve further for its true properties.” 

“So others have done this before.”

“Of course,” he replied. “You think yourself so special that you would be the first?” Glave laughed, “You humans sure are narcissistic, always thinking about yourselves first.”

“Why are you here?” Psyker wanted to know, “If I wasn’t the first person to do this, why bother with me? You’re not here just because I’m playing around with this stuff you freely give out.” He pointed at the piece to emphasize his point. 

_Shut up_ , he told himself. Stop talking so much. The more he talked, the more Glave will have to work with and use against him. 

“How I failed to notice the first few times…” Glave mused, “the brat managed to travel through time and dimensions, bringing all those extra people into one place to reboot that timeline. It was a very stupid idea could have destroyed the time flow. Since you’re here, clearly, that didn’t happen.” Psyker’s blank expression must have given away something to Glave, because the keeper then added, “Of course, you wouldn’t remember.”

“I need to know why I keep getting those dreams,” the brawler blurted out. “It has something to do with this guy, doesn’t it?” He covered his mouth after the words escaped. How and when did he come to that conclusion? 

“Yes,” he was relieved to hear a straightforward answer for once. “Those dreams are memories of when you met your other selves from different timelines.” 

If his dreams were memories…did that mean…he met that man in white before? The chaotic scene then, the debris, the floating buildings, the embrace they shared… It actually happened? His name… 

“Mastermind.” Psyker realized, slowing making connections. “His name is Add. He’s me.” He wasn’t asking Glave for confirmation, but rather- he was talking to himself. There were other versions of himself. An odd, yet easy concept to grasp. 

“It wasn’t Mastermind who messed with time.” The keeper corrected him, “To the brat who destroyed the balance in time. The gods won’t be happy.” His voice was calm, yet his eyes gave away signs of amusement. “He calls himself Diabolic Esper.” Glave said the name with emphasis, savoring how the words felt on his tongue. 

“And this Esper is another me, right?” There wasn’t just another version of himself. There were two counterparts of him. “So you’re here to punish me for something my other self did.” 

“Don’t make me laugh,” Glave chuckled. “Why would I bother penalizing a fool that doesn’t even remember or understand the situation?” 

Psyker frowned. He didn’t like being talked down like this. Even if Glave always talked in a condescending manner, it still didn’t sit well with him. He hated how the bastard seemed to know so much while he was left in the dark, attempting to make connections based on the scraps of information he had. What was Glave trying to achieve by telling him all this information? 

“I came here to make a deal with you,” Glave said. “I can go out of my way to reset everything back to its original form, but I think you would be better for this task than me.” 

“I need an explanation,” Psyker narrowed his eyes. “All you told me is that there are extra versions of me and that this Esper person fucked up big time. I need to know everything.”

“Ah, curiosity,” he sighed. “So you just can’t follow orders without questioning it.” Glave laughed softly when the berserker glared at him. “I suppose an explanation will make this much easily for your feeble mind to process.”

Glave made himself rather comfortable, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. Pieces of Time and Space danced in the palm of his hand, in a constant cycle of being tossed and caught. It was an odd quirk Psyker noticed when they first met. His eye seemed to follow every movement the brawler made when Psyker also shifted his body to a more comfortable position. 

“You were born as Add,” he began. “At one point in time, you were given options on how to advance that nasod armor of yours.” His glowing eye fixated to Psyker’s floating dynamos. “This is where your fate splits into many paths. Your decision was simply one of many dozens. Your other selves are from alternative timelines, each with different lives because of their decisions.”

“Regrettably, one of your other selves chose the path to control time.” Glave continued. _This must be Esper he was talking about_ , mused the Psyker. “Pitiful really, because humans who dabble in time go unpunished. The will of the gods won’t allow it. The brat could not only can travel through time, but dimensions as well.” 

Travel? Through time and space? No wonder the gods were pissed. Esper’s powers could easily challenge them. Though Esper definitely isn’t the first human to make a stupid gamble in time control. Not surprising when there were rumors that Glave was once a human who tried to do the same. 

“With that in mind, he brought over alternate versions of the same people into one universe.” Glave said, overwhelming Psyker with additional information. “Never did the gods predict that someone would gain the capability to manipulate time and space like this… This caused a distortion in time and forced that particular universe to reboot itself. Because those extra persons didn’t belong in that universe, they were thrown back into their original timelines and dimensions with no memory of ever coming into contact with their other selves.” 

He met his other alternative selves, but it wasn’t because of fate. It was because of Esper’s gambit. If he was being honest to himself, Psyker felt cheated, like a part of his life was cut out without his permission. To have his memories erased, how much did he forget because of that? What experiences did he lose because of the reboot? How many relations ceased to exist because of Esper? 

Even though he could only remembered glimpses of that previous life, he still craved the existence of his other self. He was more than lonely; he wanted to meet Add. Maybe even Esper himself. He wanted to meet his counterparts and get to know them again. Once again, an outside force took control his fate and held it beyond his control. To learn that his counterpart was the cause of this catastrophe pained him more than it should have. 

“Those who attempt to control time are often desperate,” Glave picked up one of Psyker’s papers with some interest, but eye still focused on him. “Your other self is no different. He seeks to make a drastic change. It won’t affect you because it’s a different timeline than the one he’s after, but having such power is something that will not be ignored.” 

“So what do you want?” Psyker asked with some hesitance, unsure if that was the best idea.

“The timeline Diabolic Esper changed will reset to the way it was supposed to be,” Glave crumbled up the paper and chucked it into a wastebasket. Psyker gripped the edge of his desk with annoyance. “Diabolic Esper cannot escape his fate.” He stepped towards Psyker with an extended arm. “I will restore your memories in exchange if you help me restore that timeline and go after your other self.” 

Psyker would be lying if he said that he didn’t want his memories to return. It was a very tempting bargain, simply at the cost of the brawler following Glave’s orders. Esper was going to be punished because he was trying to play god and the berserker was unsure on how to feel about that. And yet, Psyker felt compelled to follow through with the deed. He just wanted to fill that emptiness in his heart again, even if it meant betraying his counterpart for another version of himself. 

A grim smile formed on Psyker’s lips as he replied in a low tone. “So what about this Esper?”

* * *

In the distant past in another dimension, the bright blue sky was patched with clouds. The sun shone on the diabolic esper, forcing him to sit up and open his eyes. He felt the tendons of his limbs pull when he stretched them, bringing his arms behind his back to form crossed fingers. 

The time traveler ran through the grass, wrapping his fingers around his pink jeweled necklace. He searched around. For once, the black sclera in his eyes were absent. The grass and trees looked familiar. The smell of the woods reminded him of-, could it be? Out of breath, he slowed down to see familiar houses and buildings from a distance. 

“I’m home,” Esper whispered. 


	5. Paranoia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diabolic Esper wakes up in a timeline where his mother never died. The results are not what he expected.

Diabolic Esper felt like his head had been smacked against a brick wall when he opened his eyes. He must have passed out from using too much energy to jump through time. It took a couple of seconds for his vision to adjust to the brilliant light beaming through the window curtains at his bedside. He woke up to the oh-so-familiar sensation of pain in his limbs. As Esper steadily sat up, it became apparent that someone had tended to the wounds around his stomach area. 

He felt almost no surprise when he lifted one arm up to see it was bleeding again. Of course. Multiple sourceless wounds happened the first time and following trips using his portals. Even after months of manipulating time, the nature of interdimensional space was never forgiving; it wasn’t designed for humans to travel through. Trash and debris occupied the strange domain, violently colliding with Esper if he wasn’t careful. The wounds would soon heal, so they didn’t bother Esper. What bothered the time traveler was that there was something familiar about the room he was in. 

_I know this place_ , he realized.

Now that Esper was more awake, he noted that the room was like a library. Bookshelves lined up on one side of the room. Volumes of books were stacked at his bedside, almost tipping over from their own weight. All of them were hard cover texts, worn out from years of use. When he skimmed their titles, he found no pattern in the subjects, topics ranging from historical to coding books. 

It was only at the sound of a soft cough did Esper notice that he was not the only person present. Sitting across the room was a woman sitting in a comfy chair, dressed in a blue blouse and a white skirt, her pale face buried in a book. A sharp smell hovered around the room. Esper recognized the smell. It was black coffee. 

The woman had long white hair tied into a loose ponytail reaching the mid of her back. After a taking a couple sips of coffee, she finally looked up to see that Esper was awake. Esper abruptly stopped breathing. Her eyes met his. 

“You’re awake,” She gave him a gentle smile as she closed the book.

 _Mother_ , Esper realized. The smiling woman, that was his mother. It was her. He met her so many times in different timelines, yet he could never get over the shock factor each time. 

“The villagers found you outside the village.” She explained, talking in a soothing voice as if trying to calm him down. “You were unconscious and bleeding heavily.” 

As she spoke, she left her seat to walk over to Esper’s bedside. She bit the bottom of her lip and gave him a critical look. The white haired woman tilted her head slightly to the side. Esper then realized that she was checking on his status. With an almost sheepish look, the time traveler extended both of his arms so she could examine them. Esper glanced away when she started taking off his bandages. She was so careful that he felt almost no pain. After but a moment, he looked back to see that his wounds were already dressed in new bandages. 

Esper waited for her to ask him why he was here. Why he was covered head to toe with wounds. Or why he was barely talking. He couldn’t find the right words to say. What was he supposed to tell her after years of being so close, yet so far away from her? There were so many things he wanted ask her. Did she remember him? Could she recognize him? It was hard to tell when much of what she uttered felt generic like one would with a stranger. 

Esper loosed a small groan when he shifted his weight onto his arms to support his upper body, trying to step off the bed. He looked down noticing that he was dressed in a white shirt and a pair of boxers. Where were his clothes? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother rush to stop him by pushing him back into the bed. 

As if she read his mind, his mother said, “Your clothes are in the washer. You need something?” She asked with a smile that suggested that it would be unwise to upset her. He was surprised how strong she was. The woman only had her hands on his shoulders, but it was enough to keep him back from standing up. 

“Where are my dynamos?” His voice came out flat and quiet when he spoke. How long has he been unconscious? The time traveler instinctively reached his arm out in search for the weapons that had become an extension to his body. 

“You mean these?” She pulled out the six piece weapon from underneath the bed. 

There wasn’t a single scratch on the dynamos. After all, they were designed to be durable and withstand a lot of abuse. There was an unreadable expression on her face when she examined the dynamos, amber colored eyes narrowed in deep thought.

“Nasod?” The woman said after a short silence. She took Esper’s stare as a yes. Her voice gave away her fear when she looked at him, speaking in a quiet voice, “I won’t force you, but these need to be out of sight if you want to stay here.”

He didn’t respond.

“Nasod are illegal in this country,” she stated as if Esper didn’t understand. “The government won’t be forgiving if they find you with them.” 

“That’s fine,” Esper heard himself utter. He didn’t care any more. Would he still need his dynamos when he had accomplished his goal? He returned to the past where she was still alive. He tried to stand up again, but stopped when he felt her eyes on him. 

His mother frowned, “You’re in no state to be walking around. You’ve been out like a light for three days and your wounds are still open.” 

Her voice was calm, but there was an underlying tinge of no-nonsense. He felt young again when he saw those eyes glaring at him as if he had been a bad child. Esper inherited his eye color from his father, not his mother. At the thought of his father, the time traveler leaned his head to one side in search for any signs of him. He wasn’t in the room. Was he somewhere in the house? 

“You’re staying here until your wounds are healed,” she said in a firm tone. It was a tone Esper had not heard since he was a child. 

Although Esper could easily overpower her, something about her voice and tone stopped him. Maybe she was right. He should rest for a few days before making his next decision. There was no rush for him to leave since he was not familiar with his current situation. His dynamos could tell him the date and time, but seeing his mother was enough to tell him that maybe he had succeeded this time. Add and Lusa said it was a bad choice, yet here he was. Despite the injuries, Esper didn’t mind. Not if it meant seeing _her_ again. 

* * *

Her name was Claire. She was named after her grandmother. Claire used to be a nasod researcher with her husband until the war broke out and the government banned both nasods and anything related to them. Forced to change jobs, she became a librarian. 

If irony was a living thing, it would have chewed and swallowed Esper’s heart before spitting the corroded lump back out. The abundance of books spread all over the house showed that Claire enjoyed books outside of her job. Esper gave her a questioning look after she told him that he was passed out for the past few days. She claimed to be vacation from work when Esper asked why she was home all day, tending to his wounds and making sure he ate three meals a day. 

As a child, Esper would have grumbled at being babied by his mother, but now it was different. 

After being separated from her for so long, even the smallest gestures of reminding him to eat brought warmth to his heart. Esper woke up and was startled to find his clothes set by his bedside. It was then did Esper understand that there was no chance he could walk around in his plugsuit without grabbing unwanted attention from the villagers. Claire lent him a spare set because she thought he had no other clothes. 

Esper spent months, no, _years_ , trying to travel into the past and he may have succeeded, yet he couldn’t fight off the urge that something was wrong. Was the answer this obvious? Restarting a timeline by bringing in duplicates of the same person? Every time he thought of what he had done, a feeling of dread lingered in his mind, nagging at him when he was alone.

Should he feel guilty for betraying Add and Lusa’s trust, sacrificing their needs for his desires? Probably, but if there was guilt, it had disappeared a long time ago along with any regrets he may have had before choosing his path as a time traveler. All those times he spent with his other counterparts, they were just simply part of the plan. It was just by luck that Esper appeared in the Mastermind’s timeline and chose to use it as a restart point. 

As long as he reached his goal, that’s all that mattered, right?

“Are you an only child?” Claire asked him while watering a plant. 

Esper shook his head in response. A couple of days have passed since he woke up at his mother’s house. He was standing behind her when she asked the question. 

Claire kept some of her plants indoors, potted in various containers with intricate designs. The plant she was tending to at the moment had a rather…odd pattern. Esper wanted to bury his face in his hands. Within all the fond memories of his mother, he did not recall her ever having such bizarre taste. The ridiculous flower pot looked like it was made by a child. Simplistic, yet well drawn for the age of the creator. It was painted purple and…were those cats and hearts on the side? 

Esper felt remorse when Claire asked him for his name. So she didn’t recognize him after all. So the time travel wasn’t perfect. Esper wanted to laugh at himself. Of course it wasn’t. None of his attempts ever came out right, so what made this time so different? The time traveler couldn’t help but imagine Lusa giving him an “I told you so” with a damn smirk he wanted to rip off the psyker’s face with his bare hands. Add’s reaction wouldn’t be any different and that only worsened Esper’s mood. 

If his mother couldn’t remember him, why did he bother staying in this timeline? He could destroy this timeline like he did for many others in his previous failed attempts. That thought was quickly disposed of when he saw how happy his mother looked when she took care of him. It was then did he decide that it didn’t matter. At least he got to see her alive again. That should be enough. Maybe he could start a new life in the past, from scratch. 

He couldn’t ignore the sad smile she wore when he gave her a fake name. When she uttered the name, she had her finger placed on her lips, saying the name slowly as if treasuring the sound of it. Emil was the name of his father. 

“You remind me of my son,” she said when he looked at her with curiosity. 

It took Esper little imagination to realize who she was talking about. Esper glanced back to the purple flower pot. Was it made by her son? Claire said she had a son, but where was he? For a house with more books than its occupant could ever hope to read in a year, it had very few photos lying around. The only picture within Esper’s sight was a photo of his mother, who was standing with his father and a white haired child that looked like he was ten years old at best.

Even after staying with Claire for a few days, Esper couldn’t help but feel cautious. Despite mention of a son, there were no signs that a ten year old boy was living in the house. Based off of previous failed attempts to find the right timeline, Esper had been expecting ten year old Add to show up and mock him by existing. Then his mother would reject him as her son and act like they were strangers. 

The house did have an extra room occupied with more books, but the dust gathering at the desk and bed suggested that no one has been living there for awhile. Was her son deceased? Esper wanted to ask Claire for confirmation, but he feared the answer. If the child was dead, how was he going to comfort his mother for touching such a sensitive topic?

There were no signs of his father in the house either. Claire had a wedding ring on her left ring finger, but aside from that, she barely mentioned having a husband. It was only when Esper gave his alias did she mention his father’s existence. Was his father dead too? Esper felt a sort of guilt bubbling in his stomach. He managed to go back in time to save his mother, but was his father not spared? 

“Your husband…?” Esper started to ask. _What happened to him?_ He couldn’t finish the sentence. _Father… is he…?_

Before he could add on to his words, she beat him to it and said, “I’m sure you’re aware of what happened after the war was over.” She didn’t listen for Esper’s reply. “After the war, a virus hit the village. With the ban on nasods, research speed slowed. By the time we found a cure, it was too late and my husband passed away.” 

It took Esper longer than it should have to process the new information. A virus…yes, he recalled learning about it from history books in the future. It never occurred to Esper that even if his family avoided death from war, there were still possibilities of death in other ways. Esper had underestimated the mercilessness of the war aftermath. 

“The village…how did the village take it?” Esper wanted to know. He failed to notice the puzzled expression his mother wore. Why was the time traveler so interested in a small village that held no significant importance to the average adventurer or politician? 

“Almost 25% of the villager was infected by the disease before the cure was found,” Claire placed her hands on her temples. She did not say the death rate, but if Esper remembered the number from the history textbooks, then the village likely suffered similar numbers. It was clear that the subject affected her. She closed her eyes when she whispered the percentage, as if reciting a nursery rhyme in her sleep. There were no tears, but she almost gritted her teeth when she spoke, an attempt to hold back any overwhelming emotions. It was unnerving to see his mother in such a state. 

“I’m…” _I’m what?_ Esper asked himself with stupid glee. Sorry? Sorry for what? Sorry because his poor mother doesn’t recognize him and no words from him would be equivalent to the comfort of friends and family? What could a fool like him do when she only viewed him as an odd stranger that showed up in the fields bleeding to death? 

Esper glanced at the family portrait in the living room. If his father was dead and the son was no where to be found… His eyes widened. Then ten year old Add must have passed away too, possibly from the same disease as his father. It wouldn’t be absurd to assume so since the virus had killed off a sizeable portion of the village. Why else would his mother be living by herself? Surrounded with books and no one in the house to talk to. 

His mother was alive, but left to live through the aftermath of the war. Claire said he reminded her of her son. Esper gulped at the thought of it. He had no guilt for messing with time, but he did feel guilt for not being there for his mother when she had suffered so much. 

Esper reached his arm out to his mother to comfort her, but the woman immediately stepped away from him. She gave him a cautious look when he suddenly approached her. Was it something he said or done? Was it because he was standing closer to her than she was comfortable with? The time traveler narrowed his eyes. A rarity, his eyes were absent of the black sclera since he woke up in this timeline. He bit his tongue as he fought the urge to revert his eyes back to its default state. Not this time. He would leave his mother alone if she wanted to be. 

Claire later dismissed herself to shop for groceries. The worried expression she had remained even as she left the house. Esper didn’t bother following her, standing by himself in the middle of the living room with a dark expression. 

Even in this timeline. Even when he thought he got it right, he couldn’t comfort her and tell her things would be okay. How could he when his body was like this? He looked at his still healing wounds with disgust. 

She didn’t know him and treating his wounds was an act of kindness she may have lent to any other stranger. He covered his left eye as he glared at the front door where his mother once was. Why did she feel so close, yet so far? His mother didn’t even look at him when they talked. Her eyes were always looking away with uncertainty. Why wouldn’t she look at him? His left eye sparked dangerously in frustration. 

* * *

It has been days since he had woken up in his own house. Could he even call it home? Esper tried to extinguish the stray negative thought. Of course it was his home. After all, this was his mother’s house, so it belonged to him too. Didn’t it? Days ago, he would have answered with an immediate yes, but now he wasn’t too sure. 

He was related to his mother by blood, but she didn’t recognize or remember him. As far as she was concerned, he shared no history with her and was nothing more than an adventurer that was injured from a bad fight or unfortunate circumstances.

Once again, Esper paced through the living room, taking in every detail of the room, determined to memorize everything while it was still in front of him. Even after staying with Claire at least a week, he still touched his own face before placing his hand on whatever was in front of him. As a way to remind himself that this wasn’t a dream. 

Esper found himself staring at the family photograph that was placed over the fireplace near the living room window. It was almost tragic thinking of the photo. It had aged greatly, showing small crinkles at its edges despite being pressed flat by the glass frame that housed it. The child in that photo named Add… It was strange knowing that the child would not appear this time. Looking at the ten year old child in the photo made Esper think. 

When Esper restarted the timeline using duplicate persons, something happened. The calculations he spent many years working on showed that the timeline reboot would kick out those who didn’t belong. This meant that people like Lusa and alternative versions of Elsword would be forced back into their original timelines with their memories erased. Esper was fine with that. Those people had no reason to stay in the timeline he wanted to restart. Having their memories erased were the least of his problems. At least those alternative selves wouldn’t try to pursue after him if they remembered Esper’s actions. 

Once the current timeline kicked out the alternatives, the timeline would reset itself and his mother would not die. Esper made sure to double check for the duplicates right before he landed into the current time outside of the village. Seeing Claire still walking around to pick up a book and finish from where she last started was enough evidence to prove to Esper that his plan was successful. 

However, the timeline he force rebooted was not the timeline Esper was originally from. What happened to the world Esper came from? Esper’s mind grew numb as he pushed away those thoughts. It didn’t matter any more. The reset was designed to kick out anyone who did not belong to that timeline and force them back into their original timeline. So why didn’t it kick out Esper? He wanted to cackle at his own question. No force could return him to his own timeline. That timeline was doomed and it no longer existed. He had no where to return to. 

Esper’s frowned when he took out folded pieces of paper from his jacket pocket, straightening out the parchment that has been creased too many times to count. His jacket was the only part of his plugsuit he wore when he stayed at his mother’s place. Small scrawny writing covered the paper, many of the seemingly nonsensical scribbles overlapping each other. His eyes ran through the familiar numbers, somewhat calmed by his own writing. The numbers never lied. There could have been miscalculations, but that was not at the numbers’ fault. The time traveler’s frown soon turned into a deep scowl as he gazed at the mess of time and space calculations.

The timeline Esper restarted was the original timeline where Add, well, Mastermind, came from. The ten year old Add from the photo was technically Mastermind, but with a different past and upbringing. Add would have a different history and possibly a different personality because his mother was alive, meaning he didn’t have to suffer under slavery. He would never have to worry about running away, only to find himself trapped in an ancient nasod library that would transfer him to the future. Even with a different past and personality, the Add in this timeline would still be Mastermind. The timeline Esper reset was Add’s, not his. 

Did Esper see these errors before he restarted the timeline? The time traveler admittedly did not spot these details before he executed his plan. His actions have once again proven that his impulsiveness had gotten the best of him. He was not one to go through all the possibilities before acting. Esper couldn’t wait. He just needed to reset the timeline. Lusa catching on to the plan pushed him to act sooner than intended. Errors may have been introduced because of the meathead’s audacious actions. Despite his best efforts, nothing ever went right. Even if he worked hard to make sure everything was perfect. 

The digital clock in the room told Esper the time and date. If Add was still alive, he would be nineteen, almost twenty years old in a few months, the same age as Esper. The time traveler gritted his teeth in deep thought. But Add was dea… 

A small knock at the door made Esper pause at that thought. The door was number coded, so Esper could hear the wires of the lock whirling when the person on the other side input the correct number combination. The front door slowly opened as the time traveler started walking towards the front to see who it was. He felt his heart come to an abrupt stop when a familiar head peeked in. 

The person walked in with a slight slouch, head down with short breaths, an indicator that the person may not exercise a lot. The man appeared to be slightly shorter than Esper. He wore a purple vest and tie, dressed too formal for a warm day. He gasped for breath as he ran one hand through the long white hair he sported, tied into a ponytail. When he looked Esper in the eye, a short gasp escaped from him. It was like meeting a twin for the first time. 

Add? 

The man wore an unreadable expression when he saw Esper. He opened his mouth once, only to close it again before staring at the time traveler. His face lacked the hard lines that his previous self had from lack of sleep and for always scowling. It was more than strange to see his counterpart without his dynamos near him, ready to act as a shield between anything that got in his face. It was more bizarre seeing Add’s expression slowly turn into a confused one, something he would have worked hard to hide in another lifetime. 

Why was he alive? Esper spun around to look at Add and the picture of the child in the photo. How? The room…it looked like no one has been living in it for some time. Where was Add the whole time? 

Esper then realized his mistake. He asked Claire about his father’s fate, but not about Add’s. He just assumed that Add suffered the same consequence as his dead father. How could he be so stupid as to overlook such an important detail? Was he took too distracted by his mother to look at the whole picture? 

“Add!” His mother appeared behind Esper with a bright smile he didn’t remember her giving to him earlier. A pang of jealousy seeped through Esper’s consciousness when he saw that. Claire approached Add and said, “I thought you wouldn’t return home from the lab until the end of this week.” 

“The professor is ridiculous. Who drinks coffee at four in the morning?” Add rested his hand on his forehead with an amused look. “He made me prepare the coffee three times before he told me he would do it himself. It’s impossible to please him.”

He was…laughing? Without a trace of sarcasm or annoyance? The uncharacteristic laugh made Esper snap out from his trance of thought. 

The more Esper looked at him, the more it angered him. In the end, it would be Add who had his past changed, not him. Of course it would be Add…because the reset timeline was the one Add came from. What made Esper think that the altered timeline would affect him somehow? A foreigner to this timeline?

Could he even think of the man as Mastermind? Mastermind was just a title, not a name. Add earned that title in his last lifetime because of the dynamo program he created was named Mastermind. This Add may be the same person as Mastermind because they shared the same timeline, but he wasn’t forced to create the dynamo because he never had to worry about surviving like Mastermind or Esper did. Without the dynamo, he was simply a villager with higher than average intelligence. Add was powerless and _weak_. 

“He then told me to go home when he wasn’t happy with the lab results.” Add sighed. There was a peaceful look in his eyes. The happy look he gave to his mother made Esper want to throw up. “It looks like I get my break a week earlier than planned.” 

“Well, at least you’re here.” Claire said. “Welcome back.”

Esper wished he could tear that innocent face off. Why did Add had to give him that look when he noticed Esper? Like they had never met before and that Esper never did anything to him? The time traveler waited for a different reaction. For him to smirk and claim that Esper was idiotic to fall for that fake smile. Or for Add’s clueless expression to transform into an annoyed one and for Add to demand Esper to explain why he was in a timeline he didn’t belong to. Or yell at Esper for messing with time again. Why was this Add so different from his previous self?

The next words he uttered made Esper’s heart drop. 

“I’m home,” Add whispered. 


	6. Apocalypse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Add’s timeline was reset, his mother never died and he has no memory of ever being Mastermind. Why does Add feel uneasy about Diabolic Esper staying at his house?

Add decided that he didn’t like Esper. 

The lab assistant was not one to judge those he just met, but something about the visitor was off. It was hard for him to find the words to explain why. They had only known each other for a few hours at most and Esper hadn’t done anything haphazard or out of line. Yet, the way Esper glowered at him sent shivers down his spine. 

They shared the same eye color, but Esper’s eyes were calculating, focusing and analyzing everything around him. Even when they made eye contact, he wasn’t paying attention to Add. Esper’s eyes were somewhere else. 

Why did he share his face? The thought rushed through Add’s mind when he saw Esper. They shared the same physical features. The main things distinguishing them apart were their haircuts and that Esper had a thin pink streak on the left side of his face. Unlike Add, Esper had bags under his eyes and mumbled a lot when he talked. He also appeared shorter than Add because he walked with his back slouched. 

The semblance was uncanny. The ponytailed man never expected to meet his twin, who claimed be an adventurer recovering from a severe injury and massive blood loss. The blood and bandages proved it, but something about him was off. Why was he here? Where did he come from? Esper gave vague answers to Add’s questions. The wary expression his mother had around Esper only garnered more suspicion. 

Esper went by the name _Emil_ , the same name as his father. They had similar appearances and he went by the name of Add’s deceased father. Was there a connection of some kind between them? But the blank expression from his mother told him that she didn’t recognize him at all. Esper always avoided eye contact when talking to Add, speaking in a low voice, even when Add asked him to speak up. 

“What are you doing here?” Esper asked in a rude tone, almost snarling at Add. 

Add blinked at the hostility from Esper. He carefully chose his words and said in a quiet voice, “I live here. What are _you_ doing here?” 

He observed Esper gripping the wall and closing his eyes tight, gritting his teeth in an attempt to recompose himself before opening his eyes again. Was that his clothes Esper was wearing? He was almost positive that Esper’s left eye was glowing, letting out pink sparks in frustration. Add redirected his attention to his mother, who narrowed her eyes in response. She saw it too. When Add blinked again, the eye was no longer glowing. 

“I’m not feeling well,” Esper whispered and turned to his mother. “Can I be excused?” 

Add opened his mouth to demand answers from his twin, but Esper was already walking away with his back slumped forward. Esper had his head tilted back; he walked like he was half asleep, each step disoriented and uneven. He watched Esper walk down the main hallway before making a left turn to one of the spare rooms his mother used as a guest room. 

There was something strange about that man. What kind of person stepped into their village, claimed the same name of his dead father, and then acted like this place belonged to him? It was too much of a coincidence for Add to believe it. There had to be some kind of connection. Esper didn’t seem to like him either. Had they met before? Add held one side of his head, aching to find the answers that weren’t there. 

“You look tired,” his mother finally said. 

“Headache,” Add said as an apology. “I haven’t slept for a few days. It’ll go away.”

She refused to accept that, examining her child with concern. “You should rest then. You shouldn’t let your work get in the way of sleep.”

“Tell me, Mother,” Add needed to know. “That man. Do you know him?”

“I don’t know anything about him, Add.” His mother shook her head very slowly and gave him a fierce gaze. “He was bleeding to death in the field. You know how crowded the hospitals get…” 

“I’m sorry,” Add felt some guilt. 

He was asking her to throw away her sympathy and let a man die. How could he expect her to ignore something like that? Perhaps he was getting too worked up over a random stranger, but those eyes. They definitely weren’t natural, not when the left eye glowed like that. Add knew he wasn’t imagining it. His mother noticed it too. 

“Did you see his eye?” he asked.

“Self implanted,” she answered automatically. Add wasn’t surprised that she was able to tell from a simple glance. She used to be a nasod researcher after all. “A common procedure during the war.”

“Are you saying he’s a survivor?” Add asked. 

“Perhaps…” His mother mused. 

If Esper was the same age as Add, then he must have been a young child when the war occurred. He shouldn’t have had any exposure near the frontlines, unless he was one of those child soldiers or a slave? Add’s eyes narrowed when he thought of the possibilities. War was not the cleanest and using children as tools was not an abnormality. It was then did Add realize why his mother was so quick to accept Esper. She pitied him, maybe saw her son in him. It wasn’t hard to see why. They were about the same age with many similarities. 

“Go rest,” she said quietly. 

Add barely registered the whisper of good night from his mother when they reached his room. The lab assistant shut his eyes, overwhelmed by the unexpected events he had come home to. He just wanted to close his eyes and slip away from all the chaos. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he was resting in his bed, still tired. Add groaned and rolled back to sleep, too exhausted to think of anything else. 

* * *

Perhaps it was just his paranoia, but there were times when Add felt like he and his mother were being watched by Esper. When Add had conversations with his mother, Esper would suddenly stop whatever he was doing, listening to every word they exchanged. Even if it was just his mother scolding at him for not eating enough or telling him to get a haircut, Esper peeked at them like he was watching a fascinating movie. To be frank, Add was creeped out by it. Why was Esper staring at them with such a strange expression? 

His mother was quick to pick up on the discomfort Add felt and significantly dropped the number of conversations she had with her son. Only when they were certain that Esper was out of the room did his mother talk to him as they did before Esper showed up in their lives. 

While Esper almost never initiated conversations with Add, he made an effort to start conversations with his mother. It was almost painful watching Esper. Esper always seemed to be running on a different train of thought, trying to jump through topics before his mother caught the first one. 

This has happened more than once, often sending Esper into a nervous wreck, fumbling with that necklace he always wore. The necklace held a pink jewel crafted into a diamond shape, dangling off of a black cord. Esper was never without that necklace; it was always close to him even when he was sleeping, something Add found out the next morning. 

He tried waking up Esper by shaking him by the shoulder, but the time traveler wouldn’t budge. Add noticed the necklace hanging loosely around Esper’s neck and reached out to grab it. He cried in panic as soon as he touched the trinket because Esper woke with a start and flew out of his bed, pushing the lab assistant against the wall with a dark look on his face. There wasn’t enough time for Add to lash out. He felt Esper gashing his face, crying when Esper’s nails dug down the side of his left cheek. He shoved Esper away and ran towards the door. Turning his back on Esper was a bad idea. 

Esper caught him by the arm and yanked backwards, capturing Add’s other arm as well in but a moment. Esper’s breathing was heavy, but he had a strong grip that made it difficult for Add to escape. Add’s breath soon grew short when he saw something that would have made any other human faint from the sight of it. 

Esper’s schera were black, his pupils glowing bright magenta. His gaze was distant, as though he wasn’t actually looking at Add. The murderous glare and tight grip made Add freeze in his place, too shocked to make any sound beyond a croak. A gasp passed his lips when he felt Esper’s nails dig into his wrists, warm blood dripping down his arms. Esper had his body pressing uncomfortably against his, breath warming the base of his neck. 

Add shrunk in response. He gulped when Esper shifted to lace his fingers around his throat; Esper could easily choke him if he wished to. 

“Add?” Esper sounded like a lost child. 

Esper blinked and finally made eye contact with Add. There was confusion in his eyes, Esper’s body shuddered, but still gripped him. He released Add without warning, causing Add to lose his balance and slide down the wall in cold sweat. Esper gawked at his bloody hands in bewilderment before gazing back at Add’s face.

Add flinched when Esper walked up to him to wipe off the warm blood trailing down Add’s flustered cheek. He watched Esper in horror as the time traveler inspected the blood marks on his fingers before wiping them on his pants. Much to Add’s surprise, Esper gently grabbed the necklace and yanked it from Add’s hands. Add didn’t remember taking it. Was it because of the adrenaline? With reluctance, Add pulled his head up to see that Esper’s eyes were no longer black.

“L-looks like you’re awake,” Add let out a nervous laugh. 

“I’m sorry,” he heard Esper murmur. 

Add froze again. An apology? Esper’s bangs covered the upper part of his face. He bent his knees slightly, extending one arm to help pull Add up from the floor. Esper’s eyes widened when Add recoiled from him. With one hand against the wall, Add got up on his feet without Esper’s help. Once he regained his balance, Add gave Esper an wary look. 

Realizing the damage he had done, Esper grabbed Add by the arm with in a panic. Add was quick to reject it, smacking Esper’s arm away and turning to face the time traveler. Esper’s jaw dropped, mouthing words that lost their meaning as he tried to articulate them. All that came out was a jumble of nonsense. Esper tried again, but he could only manage a quiet whimper. 

“I’m sorry,” Esper sobbed. 

Add didn’t reply. Shit, this man was dangerous. He had to warn Mother, but Esper was in the house. How was he supposed to talk to his mother if his attacker was just a few rooms away? He ran through a few alternatives in his mind before settling on one. Maybe he could get Esper to leave? 

“Mother said breakfast is almost ready,” Add kept his voice calm as if he wasn’t assaulted by Esper moments ago. 

Esper stopped sobbing long enough to utter, “Mother?”

“Yeah,” Adde hoped that he wasn’t talking too fast to bring any suspicion from Esper. He fought to maintain his voice at a reasonable volume without giving away that he was scared. “But she said she’s missing a couple of ingredients. She wants you to go to the market to buy them for her.”

Luckily for Add, Esper wasn’t the type to question things if his mother was brought into the topic. In a matter of a few minutes, Esper left his room with the intention to go grocery shopping. His mother caught Esper leaving, but no questions were asked. 

* * *

With Esper gone, Add went to clean his wounds and bandage them before helping his mother set up the table in the kitchen. Add peered out of the opened kitchen window. Esper shouldn’t be back for several minutes. He needed to take advantage of this time he had to tell his mother what happened. 

A minute of silence passed before Add finally opened his mouth, “That man needs to leave.” 

“What can you do?” She whispered, careful so that no one could hear them. His mother was close to tears when she saw her son’s bleeding face and wrists. 

Add didn’t answer. The pain inflicted by Esper left him shaken. Touching Esper’s necklace seemed to be a trigger for him, and yet that caught Add’s interest. Add only touched the necklace for a brief period, but he felt powerful energy emanating from it. He felt stupid for wanting to touch that damn pendent. 

“Add,” she pressed him for an answer. “Please look at me…”

Add said simply, “I came to wake him up and he attacked me. His eyes changed.” 

His hands were shaking as he tied his tangled hair into a sloppy ponytail. The adrenaline from earlier was starting to fade away, but his headache persisted. Ever since he returned home, his headaches intensified, sometimes making it unbearable for Add to concentrate on anything. The lab assistant rubbed his head, feeling light headed (was it from the incident with Esper or because of something else?). 

“What?” His mother stared at him in alarm. “What about his eyes?”

“They turned black,” Add answered. “I don’t know how, but they were black. We need to-”

“You need to promise me that you don’t go to him by yourself again,” she interrupted him.

“What?” Add couldn’t believe it. 

“Do not approach him on your own,” she said. “Please…”

Add was unhappy with her request. He knew she had every right to fear him approaching Esper on his own. If it wasn’t for Esper stopping himself, Add could have easily been gone within minutes. He had a feeling that Esper was more than capable of inflicting damage beyond a couple of bruises and cuts. Esper was unpredictable and it would be best if Add kept their contact to a minimum, but…

“What do you suggest we do?” Add asked. 

He didn’t know why she stopped speaking until he saw her turning her attention to something else. She caught sight of Esper approaching their house through the window. His mother bit her lip when the door rang. Worry painted her face. She put on a determined facade before she opened the door to Esper, who held a basket of fruit as he greeted her and Add. 

“Hi…” Esper was hesitant. “You said you needed?” He held up the basket for show, unable to finish his sentence. 

“Thank you,” she took the basket from him. Her voice remained pleasant, but a hard line was drawn on her lips. “Why don’t you join us for breakfast?”

“Of course…” Esper avoided her eyes when she talked to him. 

She led them to the kitchen where the food already prepared. Esper sat on one side of the table located at the edge of the kitchen, next to the stove. His mother placed herself between Add and Esper; she stopped her son from sitting next to Esper when he attempted to. 

Add felt numb when he slowly chewed through his food. He was on his third pancake when Esper was still working on finishing his first omelette. Being a slow eater, Esper was always the last person to finish his meal, savoring the taste of his mother’s cooking. Add was in the middle of spreading butter on a piece of toast when his mother started talking again. 

“Emil, we need to talk.” His mother began. Her food was almost untouched; all she ate was the toast and jam. She set down her utensils and gave Esper a fixed stare. 

“What is it?” Esper stopped too and settled his utensils to the side. 

“It has been days since you started staying with us,” she said. “Your wounds are almost healed.” 

“Yes,” Esper’s eyes turned wide, uneased. 

There was discomfort when he shifted in his seat. He averted his eyes when Add tried to get his attention, as if ashamed of his actions from earlier. Esper brought his attention back to his mother when she talked again. 

“I understand that you must have suffered a lot in the past. I probably can’t even imagine half of the pains you have gone through,” One hand was on her lap, but she was gripping onto the edge of the table with the other. She bit her lip, but kept talking, maintaining a calm persona. “However, I cannot forgive you for hurting my son.”

Esper’s pupils diminished as he pieced together her words. He seemed to have understood the direction of the conversation and mouthed ‘no’ to himself. When he saw his mother’s eyes at the bruises on Add and then back to Esper, he understood why she brought up the topic. Add’s face was patched with bandages, but there was still blood smudged on his clothes. There was nothing to hide. 

“So you want me to leave?” Esper asked weakly. He expressed no denial at her accusation.

“I’m sorry,” she said unhappily. “But you need to go.” 

“I understand,” Esper was quiet, “I’m sorry for the pain I caused to you and him… I’m really sorry.”

 _How many times is he going to apologize?_ Add wondered. He didn’t like letting his mother deal with Esper upfront. She wouldn’t even let him sit next to Esper out of fear, but Add still didn’t like seeing her putting herself into harm’s way. Esper showed that he favored her, but would he spare her if things didn’t go as he wanted? 

“Please go.” His mother said, finishing the conversation.

Esper didn’t move from his seat, too shocked with the sudden revelation. Add waited for Esper to lose his temper, but it never came. Minutes later, Esper stood up in silence and went to grab the few possessions he had. Little was said when he left the house.

Once the time traveler’s figure was far enough that it was nothing more than a speck, Add covered his eyes with one hand. Esper was gone, but the damage had been done. His mother was stressed because of what Esper had done to Add and it was all his fault. If he hadn’t let his curiosity get to him, if he hadn’t bothered Esper, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. 

But was it worth feeling uncomfortable the whole time? Just so there would never be conflict? So he wouldn’t feel guilty about driving an injured man away? Add didn’t have an answer to the nagging thoughts. 

* * *

Add woke up clutching his heart, feeling it pound against his chest. A lump formed in his neck when he gulped, trying to control his ragged breathing . Rubbing his eyes, he stood up to run his hand through one of the bookshelves occupying his room. He mentally counted the number of books in each shelf before moving on to check if anything was removed from his room. The compulsive act soothed his nerves, but he was still jittery from the nasty shock. 

_I’m in my room_ , Add repeated to himself. It was just a dream. More like a nightmare, but still just his imagination. 

What kind of nightmare reoccurred for three nights straight? He was still shaking when he put on his clothes and brushed his teeth. There were bags under his eyes and they were red from crying when he checked his reflection. He felt like a different person. 

The lab assistant closed his eyes, frustrated that he had such little control of himself. Add didn’t remember the nightmare, but there was one detail that forever remained fresh in his mind, the sole image that stayed with him. He was haunted by Esper’s eyes, the black sclera never going away, always lingering in his nightmares and waking hours. Esper’s unnatural pink pupil dilating as it gazed at him, glowing faintly as it follow Add. 

His headache had ceased, but Add still felt lightheaded. Everything felt so surreal after Esper left. Add stayed where he was, his mind feeling numb from having just woken up. He stretched one arm in front of himself, staring at the healed cuts on his wrists. They were minor wounds, nothing worth mentioning, but memories of the attack left him frozen in his spot. 

He couldn’t stop replaying the events of Esper attacking him, Esper’s inhuman eyes staring into his. How was it possible for Esper to change his eyes like that? The only relief from Esper’s departure was that he left Add and his mother unharmed. Add’s skin prickled when he thought of the possible outcomes he and his mother had narrowly avoided. 

As to be expected, the kitchen was empty when Add walked in. His mother went back to work shortly after Esper left. She had her vacation days, but they were limited and she was a single mother working to support herself and her only child. Add was in the middle of eating brunch when he saw a lunch box lying on the kitchen counter. 

_Mother forgot to bring lunch to work again_ , Add felt annoyed when he picked up the lunch box. 

She used to call Add to remind him to bring her forgotten lunch to work, but it happened so often that it had become a weekly occurrence. It was always something distracting her or the morning rush that caused her to be forget. Her workplace was a twenty to twenty five minute walk from the house, but still, Add wished that she would be a little more attentive about the things that counted, like her food. She always worried about him eating and yet she had a hard time remembering herself. 

It was a little past noon when Add left the house after finishing his meal and washing the dishes. He shielded his eyes from the sun’s rays as he headed down the main street to his mother’s workplace. Some of the villagers were out and about, but other than that, the streets were quiet and open. 

As he walked, he couldn’t help but ponder on what had happened when Esper stayed with them, amazed how so much could happen in a few days. No matter how hard Esper tried to adjust to their living style, he didn’t belong here. Esper could try to engage with his mother as much as he wished to, but he was too awkward, too blunt, too impulsive. 

Add found Esper’s plugsuit in the laundry once; it made Esper appear even more foreign in Add’s eyes. It was out of place, perhaps from another era or place Add didn’t know of. He was puzzled why Esper owned it and what its purpose was. The article was made of a material designed to tolerate dangerous elements, the kind Add would expect to see worn by scientists or those who worked in risky environments. What kind of past did Esper have to be forced to wear such a thing? 

It wasn’t just the plugsuit that made Esper an oddity, it was the nasods he owned. Nasods were banned, so why did Esper have them in his possession? The nasods weren’t like anything Add had ever seen in his life, a six pieced weapon that was capable of who knows what. Esper called them his dynamo. Add wanted to take it apart to see what it was made of and how it functioned, but Esper gave him a sour expression when he asked questions about it. 

The lab assistant was about fifteen minutes into his walk when he halted, nearly dropping the lunchbox he had in hand. Add spotted a man lying underneath a tree he was passing by. The man was asleep, oblivious to Add’s presence. Unconscious, the man was vulnerable. Add throat went dry.

He couldn’t move when the man stirred in his sleep, unable to force himself to walk away, hide, _do something_. Maybe if Add was fast enough, he could avoid him? Add was still debating when the man woke up, groaning as he stretched his limbs. There was no black sclera or glowing eyes when the man opened them. The stranger blinked a couple of times when he saw Add.

The man was as tall as Add when he stood up from his resting place. His hair was short and white, almost silver. He was dressed in a black vest over a purple dress shirt. An assortment of metal pieces and armor adorned his clothes; six arsenals flew behind his back, resembling a pair of wings. 

Add’s heart stopped beating. Esper? 

* * *

“Add?” There was a note of recognition in the stranger’s voice. Add didn’t have to see his face to know that he was smiling. 

“Stay away from me!” Add felt his blood turn cold at the sight of him. He stepped back when the man approached him, eyes wide at the other’s sudden movement. 

No…was that Esper? What was Esper doing here? Esper left their house, but he didn’t leave the village? What else could Esper do in this place now that he had no place to go? 

This man wasn’t wearing the plugsuit, but he looked like Esper. Their eyes; they shared the same unnatural hue when illuminated. Add’s heart raced in reaction to the stranger’s eyes. No…he didn’t want to look at him. Was this all a dream? If so, he wanted to wake up. He wanted this nightmare to end.

“What’s wrong?” The man sounded hurt and kept his distance when he noticed Add’s fear.

“What do you want?” Add didn’t care how harsh he sounded. “Haven’t you done enough to us?”

No longer able to keep his eyes on the ground for long, Add glared up to see the man’s face. The first thing Add saw was the other’s beady eyes, small pupils that made it hard for Add to feel comfortable staring into them. The man’s eyes was artificial, following Add as he examined him. Add could never get used to those eyes. 

The man had an injured expression, lips curving downward and eyes growing wider. Add thought he saw a tear roll down the man’s cheek, but when he blinked, there was nothing. Canine teeth became exposed when the stranger grated his teeth, deep in thought from what Add had just said. Canine teeth? Esper didn’t have teeth like that. That realization dropped on like Add like a bomb. This wasn’t Esper. 

“You’re not him.” Add was in shock.

Once Add saw the man’s face properly, it was clear that he wasn’t Esper. The man dressed differently and talked loudly with a drawl. Even his posture was different; he kept his head high and his chest was puffed out with pride. He was the same height as Esper, but had a thicker build. This man was a different person. 

“Hey,” the stranger hovered his hand over Add’s shoulder with hesitance. He saw the bandages Add had on his face and his face was knit with concern. “What happened to you?” 

The scratches on his wrists were already healing, but the scars were still visible when Add rubbed his bandaged forehead with one hand. He had bandages on each side of his cheek; small marks lingering near his collarbone area. Add pulled backwards when the man tried reaching his hand out to touch his forehead. 

The stranger withdrew his hand when he felt Add’s discomfort, but continued to scan the bandages covering Add’s injuries with a pained expression. Add didn’t like being touched by anyone. What was the man trying to prove by attempting to comfort him? The physical similarities the stranger shared with Esper made it hard for Add to be open with him. 

He squinted at the dynamos behind the man’s back; they were similar to the ones Esper had, but still different. Esper and the man shared many common traits. The stranger even had the same pink line on the left side of his face like Esper did. Did Esper have a brother? The idea of the time traveler having a living relative creeped Add out. 

It became evident that Add wasn’t willing to talk much, so the man sighed, “I guess that answers my question… You don’t know who I am, do you?”

Add blinked before shaking his head. Of course he didn’t. If he did, he would acknowledged the man. The stranger stood out like a sore thumb. No one wore as an absurd outfit as he did. What were those metal pieces even for? Or were they merely there for decoration to make him more intimidating than he already was? Not that it was necessary when this man already had sharp teeth and arms that could crush a man. 

“People know me as Psyker, but you can call me Lusa,” he introduced himself when he saw Add staring at him. 

“Lusa…” Add repeated the man’s name. Somehow, it felt too casual to call Psyker by that name. Add narrowed his eyes. How did he know his name? “Don’t tell me you’re with him too.”

“With who?” Psyker was confused. 

Add scoffed, “The one who looks like you. Walks like he’s half asleep and mumbles to himself.” 

“You mean Esper?” The Lunatic Psyker laughed. 

“So you do know him,” Add scowled, unsatisfied with the rambling answer he got out of the madman. “Tell me what Esper did to make you run out here in those dreaded clothes.”

Add’s crude comment hardly phased Psyker. The brawler took a deep breath and scrunched his brow, trying to organize his thoughts. “Okay, so Esper lost his mom from the Nasod War years ago. He’s been searching for a way to use his nasods to jump timelines and prevent his mom from dying.” 

Esper jumping timelines. Add grimaced, running through Psyker’s words a second time mentally. Did Psyker really take him as a gullible person? He may be clueless on what was going on between Psyker and Esper, but he wasn’t a moron. Controlling time is impossible and it sounded like a stupid idea only a fool would attempt to chase. 

“I’m looking for him, actually.” The brawler admitted, “He messed with our memories and he isn’t supposed to distort time like that. You probably won’t believe me, but Esper and I…we’re the same person as you. We share similar pasts, but different futures. I guess that makes us the same, but not?” 

Nothing Psyker said made sense to Add, although one thing was certain: Esper had been using a fake name while living under the same roof as Add. Was Psyker suggesting that he and Esper were alternative versions of the same person? Psyker was out of his mind. 

“You were supposed to have the same past as me and Esper, but Esper changed that and now you’re a different person.” Psyker said, “I’m going to stop Esper from messing with time again. There are some nuisances I needed to take care of, and-” 

Add crossed his arms, “Let me guess, I’m one of them.” 

“What?” Psyker was dumbfounded. “No!”

This conversation was going nowhere, Add decided. He wanted to laugh at the brawler’s poor excuses. Time traveling? Alternative selves? Was Psyker insane? However, there was one thing he knew for sure now: Psyker was searching for Esper. Did that mean the time traveler was still here? 

“I don’t know why you and him act like you know me, but I can reassure you that we have never met.” Add turned to the side, avoiding turning his back to Psyker in case the brawler was anything like Esper. “If I look like someone you know, I pity that guy. Whatever business you have with Esper, leave me out of it. I want nothing to do with both you.” 

Add didn’t like the current situation at all. Psyker was too friendly, too hopeful when he talked to Add, as if they were long lost friends. The way Psyker gawked at him reminded him too much of an injured animal being punched in the rib cage when Add failed to recognize him.

“I see…” There was disappointment in Psyker’s voice. He didn’t react when Add moved to leave, but the next thing he said caught Add’s attention. “This is Esper’s doing, isn’t it? The bandages I mean.” 

Add didn’t answer. 

“Maybe if I was more careful with my words, all of this never would have happened.” Psyker said, “Esper sending us all back to our original timelines, me losing my memories, you becoming a different person, I’m just rambling to myself now… And I know this makes no sense to you, but-”

“You’ve talked enough,” Add didn’t want to hear any more of it. He was tired of listening. He wanted to move on, away from these complications created by Esper and Psyker. “Leave me alone. I’m done.” 

If Psyker was expecting him to help find Esper, then he could expect nothing but disappointment. Running into Esper again was the last thing Add wanted to do. Add closed his eyes when he walked away so he didn’t have to see the sad expression on Psyker’s face.


	7. Undo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diabolic Esper has caused serious damage when he changed Mastermind’s past. Lunatic Psyker searches for his alternative selves, unaware of Glave’s intentions.

It was like a slap to the face. Lunatic Psyker wasn’t ready to see another version of himself at all. The brawler accepted Glave’s deal because he had run out of options. He thought Glave was humoring him, sending him on fool’s errands for his own entertainment. But instead of finding the Diabolic Esper, he ran into Add.

Mastermind had a different personality than the person Psyker met, carrying an air of superiority, the kind that suggested that he wouldn’t mind stepping all over someone if it gave him the upper hand. He held a dark sullen look that was calculating and observant, never idling for too long on a single target. 

Add was different than what Psyker remembered, nothing at all like the cunning Mastermind. Everything about Add seemed to contradict what he remembered. Yes, he shared the same physical appearance as Mastermind, even down to the clothes and hair, but the way he presented himself was different. Despite having a tall lanky appearance, Add slumped forward, making himself look smaller. He always looked uncertain about his situation, uncomfortable in his own skin. The lab assistant had bags under his eyes, jolting because he didn’t hear Psyker approach him.

What happened to Add for him to jump at the mere sight of him? The wide eyed look he had made him look so vulnerable, making it almost easy to forget that he and Psyker were different versions of the same person. 

Add’s words hurt Psyker more than he would have liked to admit, and yet it puzzled him. How could he be hurt by the rejection of someone who he hardly remembered? His knowledge of Mastermind was from his dreams and remnants of memories that have been recovered recently. There wasn’t much to work with, and yet it still hurt to be rejected by Add, who looked very much like Mastermind. 

It was more like wishful thinking that Add would have Mastermind’s memories, maybe because they were supposed to be the same person. Perhaps it was because he had hoped that Add would be able to fill in the memories he had lost because of Esper. Psyker was still struggling to wrap his mind around the concept that there were alternative versions of himself. 

The weight of Add’s words left the brawler numb, unable to catch up to him. What use was it to go after someone who had little desire to be with you? Psyker wandered aimlessly around the village, ignoring the strange looks people gave him. He was back where he was raised, but he felt little happiness. 

Add wore an absurd amount of clothes and accessories, but it wasn’t enough to hide the marks on his face, covered by bandages. Pulling up his collar wasn’t enough to hide the small marks around his neck area, tempting Psyker to lean closer to inspect it. Psyker fears were confirmed when Add admitted that he didn’t recognize the brawler.

Psyker chuckled softly to himself. Of course Add wouldn’t remember him. Hell, even he couldn’t remember Add. What he knew of Add was sparse, fuzzy in memory, and yet he was still overwhelmed with emotions when he saw Add in person. Psyker felt the need to grab hold of him to convince himself that this wasn’t just another dream, that Add existed. 

He remembered everything in his life, but there was a period where Psyker’s memories were a haze, time he assumed was spent with Mastermind and Esper before the timeline was reset. It was odd for memories to be simply forgotten like that, but he never pondered on it long until Glave showed up with an explanation. 

“Enjoying your visit?” 

Psyker let out a quiet sigh, leaning forward and looking down to the ground, turning his head to see Glave chuckling. Glave walked up to him with what Psyker could only guess was a bemused expression from the way his eyes glimmered beneath the mask. 

“Esper isn’t here,” Psyker glared at the street. They were in one of the residential areas, so it was less populated than the main streets. He still couldn’t believe that he was in the past. There were some minute changes, but otherwise, it was the way he remembered it. 

Glave laughed, “That boy is living evidence that Diabolic Esper was here. He wasn’t supposed to be in the past. He’s supposed to meet the same fate as you and Diabolic Esper.”

Psyker assumed that Glave was referring to Add, his lips formed into a tight smile as he stood up to face the time keeper. “You mean suffer as a slave and be treated less than dirt,” he spat with acidity. “Sent into the future with nothing to hold onto but his own hide and dynamos.” 

“That’s one way of wording it,” he gave Psyker a nonchalant shrug. 

“This is all a game to you, isn’t it?” Psyker said, “You could easily fix this with your own damn hands.”

“As I said before,” Glave said. “I think you would be better suited for this job than I am.”

Psyker wanted to shake Glave for only repeating himself, sparse on new information. What puzzled Psyker was that Glave took him back in time to a different past where Add never had to suffer the same consequences as he did. What made Glave so sure that Add was supposed to suffer like him and Esper? Wasn’t it a good thing that this Add was living a normal life? 

“How can you be sure Esper is here?” Psyker questioned, still furious at Glave. What if Esper was in a different time or another timeline altogether? A part of Psyker hoped that Glave was wrong for once, that they had met a dead end and that the search for Esper would stop. 

“It’s always the same time period,” Glave explained. “If not years from now, it’s typically in this time period when Diabolic Esper is supposed to be nineteen years old. I’m sure you know enough about yourself to figure out what his intentions are.”

Psyker groaned at the indirect answer, closing his eyes for a moment. A part of him was excited to be home when he first arrived, feeling surreal to see the village so peaceful when his last memories of it was filled with flames and destruction. 

Despite how calm the village was, Psyker felt nervous when he stepped into it. He didn’t belong here. The brawler grew uneasy when he realized that with the village still standing, meaning that Mother was alive. As much as Psyker wanted to meet her again, something stopped him. What was he supposed to say after not seeing her for over a decade? If Esper was in the past, would he be bold enough to approach her and what would he do then? 

“Mom…” Psyker opened his eyes at a sudden realization. Could Esper be here for her? It was a simple, but childish goal. He looked at Glave and asked, “How long has he been doing this for?” Esper wouldn’t be stupid enough to repeat time travel for a petty goal like that, would he? 

“More than enough, a year at minimum,” Glave replied coolly. 

“So why doesn’t Add remember anything?” Psyker demanded, hoping to get more than vague answers from Glave. “Is he the same as Mastermind?” 

“Add is still Mastermind,” the time keeper said. “They come from the same dimension, but have different pasts, giving them different personalities.”

“I find Esper and then our memories are restored, right?”

“Not quite,” was Glave’s response. 

“You promised to restore our memories,” Psyker’s features twisted into a dark expression, already picking up the unpleasantness from Glave’s tone. “We made a deal.” 

“Our?” Glave’s voice still betrayed amusement. “There was never an ‘our’. The deal was to find Esper and punish him in return for your memories.”

“Add-”

“Is not part of the deal.” Glave finished the sentence. His tone became serious, gazing at Psyker with a critical eye. “Even if he was part of the deal, it won’t work. You recall things because your memories are there. They are simply repressed by magic because you changed dimensions. Add never had them to begin with because his past was reset, meaning he never met you or your other self, therefore never experienced it. He cannot recall things that never happened to him. Our business is done.”

So Add would never remember him, Psyker thought in grief. Psyker looked at Glave sullenly, but the time keeper betrayed no emotion. 

“Tell me one thing,” Psyker asked with hesitance, almost fearful of the answer. “Why does it matter so much to repair Add’s timeline? Is it wrong for him to live a normal life?”

“The only thing that matters is that timelines remain unchanged,” Glave uttered after a long silence. “What can or cannot be changed isn’t determined by me. You want to know why your other self is so driven to make such changes? You can find and ask him yourself.”

Psyker looked around as he walked, frowning when he saw that the houses looked familiar. Where has he seen this before? He opened his mouth to ask Glave another question when he was cut short by the sight of a tall man dressed in what looked like a plugsuit, letting out a small gasp when he saw that the man’s face mirrored his. Was that Esper? 

Esper was walking at a slow pace with a sober expression. Psyker approached, keeping his distance, but close enough to see his face. The time traveler didn’t seem to notice Psyker or Glave’s presence, keeping his head tucked down as if ashamed of something. It took Psyker a moment to remember why the houses looked familiar. This was the same neighborhood where he grew up as a child, which was also… 

“Add’s house,” Psyker said with dread. “He’s going back.” 

What if Add was there? The brawler couldn’t imagine Add lasting long if he were to get into a fight with Esper. So catching Esper would only restore his memories and not Add’s, but that no longer mattered to him. It hurt him to see those cuts and bruises on Add’s face. Psyker was certain that Esper was more than capable of inflicting heavier wounds, so he ran after Esper, afraid that he would lose sight of him if he didn’t act now. 

* * *

Add decided to take a different route from usual when he walked home, trying to avoid running into Psyker again. Especially not after their previous encounter, where Add was pelted with questions. The more questions he asked Psyker, the more confused he became. 

Esper was a troublesome stranger who left as quickly as he came, a memory Add preferred to forget. Why did Psyker have to bring up his existence again? The brawler kept looking at him like he was weak, a look of pity. Add felt like he was left out of a big secret. He hated it. 

Everything became numb. He felt Psyker’s words weigh on him even as he left his mother’s workplace. Add’s vision blurred when he found his way through the familiar streets of the neighborhood, his head was still spinning, sluggishly collecting his thoughts in an attempt to understand what just happened. 

It took Add time to look at Psyker and realize he was not Esper. Despite sharing similar features, Psyker was different, careful to keep a distance until he saw the injuries. Unlike Esper, Psyker wasn’t afraid to exchange eye contact and make it clear what he wanted to know, which gave Add had more than enough reason to be careful, wary of what the brawler was capable of. Those muscles couldn’t be there just for show. 

_We share similar pasts, but different futures. I guess that makes us the same, but not?_

Psyker’s explanation was so ridiculous, but Add couldn’t ignore it. The brawler sounded desperate, almost begging for Add to listen. It was unnerving to see a stranger be so concerned for his well-being. It didn’t match with his tough appearance at all. Add didn’t want to believe it. If they were all the same person, what was he supposed to do? 

A person sharing the same past as Add was one thing, but two? Add wanted to shake his head at the mere thought. Too annoying. Hours had passed since he encountered Psyker, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the brawler. 

Could Psyker be telling him the truth? Were Psyker and Esper really the same person as him? But if that was the case, then why were they almost unrecognizable from afar? Add had met both of them and they acted so different, almost as if they were unique persons if not for the fact that all of them shared similar face and body. What did Psyker and Esper go through for them to change so much? 

Add saw the rooftop of his house, relieved that it wasn’t too far. Just a few more steps and he’d be home. As he approached the small gate leading to the front yard, his mind froze when he saw a familiar face. The man was tall and thin, his arched back made prominent when he leaned forward. The stranger heard Add’s footsteps, lazily pulling his head back so that he could see Add’s face. Without the black sclera, the man looked almost innocent, wearing an unreadable expression. 

Add opened his mouth, but whatever he had in mind came out as a dry croak, unable to conjure up words. His hands were shaking, eyes widening as he stepped back to increase the distance between them. The emotions he felt were hard to place. It was a mixture of sadness, anger, and fear. 

His first thought was to shout at the man for everything he had done to him, for the suffering and distress he had caused to both him and his mother. His mother offered Esper kindness out of pity, only for the time traveler to betray her trust and lose control of himself. Throwing Add around like a ragdoll was one thing, but worrying Mother was just as unbearable, if not worse. 

The look Esper gave him sent shivers down his spine. Esper’s eyes were normal, but still glowed with a soft light from his artificial eye when he made eye contact. The flat line of his lips curved up into a small smile, opening to let out a bitter laugh. 

It was a quiet laugh, only audible because Add was close enough, low and rough as if he had screamed for hours. Perhaps he did. 

“What do you want?” Add managed to find the courage to ask. He struggled to retain a calm facade, stress seeping into his voice. “Why are you here? That name you use is fake. Tell me your real name.” 

His voice was firm and demanding, but he was sure Esper could see through it. _Pathetic_. The question in itself was stupid and redundant, but he had to ask, to prove that Esper wasn’t the same person as him. His heart was pounding hard when Esper went over to face him. Even though they were the same height, Esper somehow seemed taller. 

“You want my real name?” Esper guffawed, “You of all people want my real name?” The time traveler covered his left eye with one hand, a wide grin revealing sharp jagged teeth. Esper stared straight into his eyes. “No one calls me by my name anymore. Not since she died, anyway. They call me Diabolic Esper, but if you must know, my name is Add.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Add was taken by surprise of Esper’s arrogance, different from how quiet Esper was around his mother. He didn’t like how Esper looked like he was going to eat him. “That’s my name, not yours.” 

“You know what this is?” Esper ignored him, gesturing to the flowerbed his mother had worked so hard to maintain. He smirked when he didn’t get an answer, instead wearing a pleasant smile that didn’t match his eyes. “This is where our mother died. Where her body was left to rot when they massacred her. They didn’t even bother to bury her.”

Add didn’t reply. He could only watch in horror as Esper continued. 

“They killed her and the rest of our family because of the illegal research they did,” Esper recited, as if he had told this story many times before. “While you got to spend your childhood with Mother, I was made into a slave, lucky to stay alive long enough to escape. We’re the same damn person. What makes you so special while I had to suffer?” 

“We’re not the same,” Add snapped at him, unsure if he was denying Esper’s claim or that he just didn’t want to be associated with the stranger. He started to walk backwards, refusing to turn his back on the time traveler. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake as before. 

Esper had a coy smile, stepping away from the flowers to leap over the picketed white fence to follow him. Add saw regret when he looked Esper in the eye, now pitch black with only the pupils glowing. Already restless, Add felt his blood rush through his veins, ready to run at a moment’s notice. 

“You think I enjoy knowing that we’re the same person?” Esper asked. “I thought you and Mastermind would be the same, considering you’re from the same dimension, but you’re even weaker than him. You’re pathetic.” 

Add frowned at the strange name that was associated with him. Was Mastermind like Esper then? Psyker, Esper, Mastermind. None of his other selves had normal names. 

Before Add could ponder further, his eyes grew wide when Esper’s started glowing. Esper shouted something to him, the time traveler’s dynamos advancing to attack. Add slammed his body against the sidewalk curb, just in time to dodge an energy ball hurled to him. 

His stomach churned, crawling on his fours to get away when he felt the floor disappear underneath him. A scream escaped from Add’s lips as he fell through the portal Esper created, disoriented when he landed on his back on the opposite side of the street. He looked up to see Esper smirking, not in the least worried that Add was trying to escape.

“Aw, running away?” Esper faked a hurt expression when Add struggled to stand on his feet. “You really are like Mastermind after all.” 

“Quit comparing me to him,” Add choked. He dug his hand through both of his pockets, hoping that the item he was searching for wasn’t left at home today. Add felt relief when he dug out a small pocket knife, a birthday gift from his mother. He nearly dropped the blade when he swiped it out of its handle. 

It would have been naive to hope that Esper would flinch when he caught sight of the pocket knife. Esper didn’t’ even break a sweat when Add charged at him, dodging the attack with a grin. The dynamos clashed with Add’s knife, forcing Add to keep his distance, preventing him from getting too close to Esper. The time traveler dragged out the battle, sometimes missing Add on purpose. Esper was toying with him. 

He was going to be killed by an alternate version of himself, an unlikely situation made possible because of Esper. It didn’t take long before exhaustion got to Add, slowing down his movements and making his counterattacks sloppier. Add rose one hand, only for Esper to flick it away with his dynamos, sending the pocket knife out of his hand. Add felt all hope was lost when the knife fell to the floor. He was now weaponless.

* * *

Unlike Mastermind, Add never had to learn how to fight or defend himself. Esper could have easily broke him like a twig if he wished to. Was Esper playing around with his prey? Admittedly, yes, but then again, Esper wasn’t one to have clean, fast fights. What was the fun in that? Things are always more interesting dragging out fights, allowing Esper to see the person’s true nature. Even though he was limiting himself, it was still humorous to see how slow Add reacted to everything Esper threw to him. 

Add was a fool if he thought he could survive this fight. Tenacity is a common trait of Adds, but this one took less time than the usual to recover from the shock of encountering him more than once. 

For a brief moment, Esper almost thought he saw Mastermind in Add, who glared at the time traveler. His bruises were still visible where Add’s clothes or bandages did not cover, some of the wounds reopening with blood leaking through the once clean bandages. His uneven breaths were loud enough that even a civilian could hear it from across the lawn. 

“You,” Add growled, a feeble attempt to sound threatening while unarmed. “Why do you hate me so much? What do you want from me?”

Esper didn’t answer immediately, examining Add’s injuries with little emotion, no longer smiling. It was always the same questions being asked. _What do you want? Why are you doing this?_ After hearing the same cries, the words lost their effect on Esper, no longer caring what happened to Add. There were other Adds in other timelines, so why did this Add’s words sting? Was it because Add was Mastermind? But they acted nothing alike, Esper shook his head. It was pointless to get worked up over this. 

“Your existence mocks me,” Esper said. “Every attempt to change the past resulted in nothing but failure. Your sad life was supposed to be mine, not yours.”

“Don’t tell me you believe in time traveling too!” Add tried to laugh it off, but stopped when he saw how serious the other was.

Add was too slow to see Esper run in his direction, teleporting behind Add to shock him with weak jolts of electricity. He cried when Esper kicked him in the stomach. The electric shocks left only minor burns, but protested when he worked to get back on his feet, forcing him to fall back on his knees. 

“So forcing the timeline to reset itself wasn’t the answer either”, Esper sighed with irritation. How many more times would he have to run through this cycle of trial and error? What was he missing to change his own timeline? Instead of fixing his own past, he fixed Mastermind’s, which resulted in Add being the person he was now, something that annoyed Esper. It was a mistake to restart the timeline before he was certain that everything was under his control.

It was almost a pity that it was Mastermind’s timeline that was victim to his meddling. Add was in the best condition before Esper came along. However, Add saw too much and knew too much of what Esper was doing. This timeline will face the same consequences as the rest of the failed timelines Esper traveled to. 

“Not rewarded for all that time and effort wasted,” Esper muttered. “What a waste, not even the right timeline.”

No point in letting this timeline continue its petty existence. Add shrunk when Esper raised his hand, only to be stopped by a strong set of arms. 

“Hello, Psyker.” Esper’s muscles pulled when he attempted to wiggle out of the brawler’s strong grasp, sighing with exasperation. “What a pleasant surprise seeing you again.” 

Esper struggled under Psyker’s grip, forgetting how strong the brawler was. Psyker jumped back when Esper spread his dynamos to form a barrier between the two, sparks flying off from the edges. The brawler pulled out his weapons in response, darting his eyes to where Add was with a concerned look. 

Esper smirked, but his expression faltered with he realized it was Psyker that was holding him. How did Psyker get here? There is no timeline where the brawler was capable of time travel unless assisted by him. Out of precaution, Esper snuck a glance around to see if there was another Diabolic Esper. Nope. Unless it was someone else? Esper clicked his tongue when he recalled one other person who had control over time. It couldn’t be him, could it? 

“You have some nerve messing with my memories like that,” Psyker glared at the time traveler. “You made a fool out of me and Mastermind for trusting you.”

“Oh, you remembered,” Esper said. “Looks like I made another miscalculation.” His felt his lips twitch at the last word, a disgruntled expression that contrasted with his happy tone. 

“Why Mastermind’s timeline?” Psyker demanded to know. “Did you really do all of this just so you can reunite with Mom?”

“No need to make it sound so simplistic,” the time traveler scoffed. “Isn’t it obvious? Undo everything. Erase all of the pain that was ever inflicted on us. Prevent the bad future that would happen to us if Mother died and the rest of the crap that comes afterward. Isn’t that a good enough reason to change the past?”

“Well it seems clear enough that this didn’t work out,” Psyker snorted. “You only changed Mastermind’s past. You fucked up.”

Esper looked at the brawler in annoyance, not sure what Psyker was trying to accomplish from this conversation. Psyker was using a voice reserved for arguments, the one for when his patience ran out. Not that Esper cared about keeping Psyker’s temper in check, although Psyker as an additional factor complicated the situation. What a bother, Esper rubbed his temples with a grim smile. 

“So what do you suggest, dear Psyker?” Esper mocked, “What solution do you have in mind?”

“Listen,” the brawler said in a tired voice ( _Good_ , Esper thought). “Undo this mess. Let this timeline go back to the way it was supposed to be. Things aren’t supposed to be like this.”

“Being diplomatic with him,” a new voice drawled. “You really have a strange way of dealing with things, but I’m afraid you’ve been idling too long.”

* * *

“Glave…” Esper recognized the voice. 

Too used to Glave’s habit making silent entrances, Esper hardly bat an eyelash when the time keeper appeared right behind him. Psyker on the other hand, was not, who shouted in surprise and grasped the wall beside him to prevent himself from falling down. 

“Congratulations on finding Diabolic Esper,” Glave chuckled. “It was certainly entertaining watching you struggle the whole way through.”

Esper bit his lips in anger, quick to see the connection. Glave must have helped Psyker track him for some reason, but for what? The time keeper wasn’t one for providing services to people without something in return. 

The exchange Esper had with Glave was silent, only eye contact. It is always near impossible to read what Glave had in mind, but Esper could see a distinctive gleam in Glave’s eyes. The look that meant Glave expected something out of him. Esper felt his mouth grow dry. 

“Who would have thought someone like you would have the power to manipulate time to this extent?” Glave said. “You’ve met multiple version of yourself and even managed to manipulate entire timelines. Impressive.” 

“You were the one who showed me how to control time,” Esper growled. 

“And you were stupid to abuse that knowledge I handed to you,” was Glave’s crude reply. “It was fascinating to watch you fail so many times, but I’m afraid changing timelines will cost you dearly. This timeline needs to be restored to its original course.”

“If it was that simple, then I would have corrected my own timeline to the way it should have been,” Esper said with bitterness.

“It must be easy for you to make these decisions when it doesn’t affect you at all.” Add interrupted the conversation with a scowl on his face, blood dried on one side of his face. He may not understand everything, but he certainly wasn’t stupid. 

Psyker’s eyes grew wide, as if remembering that Add was still there and listening to their whole conversation. Esper huffed. Of course Psyker would be worried about Add, still the same as ever. 

“So let me get this straight,” Add started. With the way he had his nose pointed up, the only thing missing was a smug expression characteristic of Mastermind. “Both of you are me, and I’m not supposed to exist because of something this guy did.”

Add looked at Esper with a dark expression full of loathing as he snarled the last few words. 

“If you reset this timeline, then my memories are going to be wiped again,” Add realized. “I won’t remember anything if this place is restarted.” 

“That is correct,” Glave answered. “You won’t remember this ever happening.” 

Since when did anyone have the right to decide how my life should be?” Add asked unhappily. “What gave you guys the right to mess with my memories?”

“You have no say in this,” Glave explained to Add as if he was talking to a child. “Certain things must happen in order for the future to continue its course. Without order, the universe will collapse.”

“So you’re saying our fates are predestined?” Add asked. “Tied down by who says what should be?”

“No, you selfish human,” Glave’s patience was wearing thin. “This timeline and its history are set up for bigger events in the future, but I suppose that means nothing to you.”

Esper had his head tilted down with his bangs covering the upper part of his pale face. After traveling through many different dimensions, it was getting harder to distinguish the difference between wishes and reality. This was a mess, a giant chaotic mess that shouldn’t have happened. Was he destined to fail forever, only to be able to watch others be happy while he continued to wallow in his pathetic past? Were his efforts for naught? 

The time traveler looked over to Psyker, who was studying him carefully. Esper’s brows scrunched together in confusion when he saw Psyker give him an apologetic look. Why? For making a deal with Glave and pushing him to the corner? Esper wanted to mock Psyker. Guilt didn’t change reality. He didn’t need Psyker’s pity.

He turned to see Add’s reactions, which were harder to read compared to Psyker’s. Add rose an eyebrow, deep in thought from the exchange with Glave. When he caught Esper’s eye, he gave the time traveler a cold look, not that Esper blamed him. Add had every right to hate him. He was living a comfortable life with his family and it was going to be erased without a second thought. 

“You really expect me to undo all of this?” Esper cackled. “Impossible. If I could, I would have changed the past like I intended a long time ago…”

“Which is why I’m here. An exchange, if you will.” Glave said, unphased by the time traveler’s burst of laughter. “I will restore the timeline to its proper state, at a price, of course.”

“What are you-?” Esper abruptly stopped laughing.

“After all,” the time keeper said with a smile in his voice. “The gods are not forgiving. You had too many chances. Time’s up.” 

Esper opened his mouth for a snarky comeback, only to freeze as he watched the cubes in Glave’s hands glow blue. The light grew intense, so bright that Esper had to squint. His eyes darted to Psyker and Add, whose faces were just as shocked as his. In a blink of an eye, everything turned white. They were disappearing.


	8. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diabolic Esper pays the ultimate price after his time manipulation got out of hand. Lunatic Psyker and Mastermind are forced to return to their old lives until Esper does one final deed.

Psyker felt lightheaded before the pain flooded in, like his head was about to burst. His senses were numb when the memories came rushing back, all too vivid and vibrant. Memories of people flashed through his mind, people who looked similar to those he grew up with. 

There was a red haired boy who looked like Elsword, but his outfit was dominated by black and he laughed in a carefree manner when a purple haired girl chided him for something he said. The girl looked like Aisha, but she was dressed in a revealing, nearly all pink outfit. Psyker thought he saw Rena, Raven, and a few other familiar faces, but it was hard to tell because of the overwhelming information suddenly within his grasp. 

His heart sank when he saw Esper, who had his back facing the brawler. Psyker opened his mouth to talk, but the dark expression Esper had stopped him from doing so. Esper had his eyes shut as if already anticipating his fate, sighing unhappily. 

“Esper?” Psyker whispered the time traveler’s name. 

Psyker struggled to sit up straight, rubbing his head from the headache that came with the sudden memories. The pain persisted even when he attempted to get closer to Esper, who was now kneeling on the ground with his head facing down. Esper quivered when Psyker sat besides him, surprised that Esper told him to go away.

“Is it not enough for you to make me suffer?” Esper said, “Just seeing you and Mastermind live free from the past disgusts me.”

Did Esper think that he had helped Glave ruin his plans? Psyker shuddered at the twisted, but simple logic. The brawler frowned and shook his head, but saw that Esper was already dismissing him with a hollow laugh.

Esper’s sanity has always been up in the air, but Psyker was starting to question it further. He knew that Esper had an obsession with undoing time, but it never occurred to him that the time traveler envied him or Mastermind. Psyker couldn’t help but pity Esper, wondering how long the other had been plagued with those toxic emotions.

“Was all of this really your plan?” Psyker found the courage to ask Esper, “Were Add and I just disposable pieces to your plan to restart time? I mean, you’re no honorable man, but I thought maybe we shared a bond of some kind, even if it’s a twisted one.” 

“I don’t know any more,” Esper admitted with a cracked voice. “If there was an answer to your pathetic questions, then it’s lost to hell. Maybe you were just part of the plan, maybe you were a mistake. How many times did I change planes of time to meet different versions of you and Mastermind? I can’t even remember which Lunatic Psyker you are.” 

His chest tightened. Esper looked exhausted, drained from the fight he had earlier with Add. Once he had stopped fighting, Esper looked smaller, perhaps even fragile, a look of fear in his eyes at the uncertainty of his fate. After spending so many years fixated on the past, it was unlikely that Esper stopped to think about his future. 

“I’m sorry,” Psyker swallowed his pride. What else was there to say if Esper was angry at him? For all the destruction Esper had caused, the brawler still couldn’t find the energy to stay mad at Esper any more. 

Psyker looked around to see that they were no longer in the past. The floor beneath them changed from soft ground that smelled of flowers and grass to an unknown type of metal. The metal was blue with intricate lines overlapping each other, giving off a white glow when stepped on. It resembled the Pieces of Time and Space. 

“Henir’s Time and Space?” The brawler’s eyes wavered in confusion when he recognized where they were. Why were they here? 

As expected, Henir’s was the same as ever, a tiny plot of land in a strange dimension that didn’t seem to exist anywhere in time. In a way, it existed in the past, future, and present. Even after visiting the realm many times, Psyker couldn’t ignore the uneasy feelings from being there. There was something surreal about knowing that such a place existed, where it was possible to visit multiple dimensions, to meet people that no longer existed.

Esper remained quiet, only giving away himself when he stood up to examine their new surrounding. The tails that adorned his plugsuit clattered and echoed against the floor when he walked. Esper had his eyes directed into the dead space that enveloped the platform they stood on. The time traveler gripped something around his neck, mumbling a few incoherent words. 

“So the extras, alternative versions of people.” Psyker started to ask. “Is it still impossible for them to exist in the same plane?” 

Glave said in exchange for catching Esper, he would have his memories restored. However…that deal would also include Add’s past being returned to its proper state, forcing Add to live through misery before being placed in an uncertain future. Would it still be possible for Psyker to meet Add again? 

“Heh, extras.” Esper smirked, “They can still exist in the same universe…although how they meet would be through sheer luck, which I’m sure you know is unlikely.” With a soft chuckle, he said, “I see Glave kept his part of the deal. He really did restore your memories.”

“How did you know that?” The brawler asked with horror. 

“How, indeed,” he heard Esper utter to himself. Esper shook his head with a bemused expression. When Psyker gave him a questioning look, the time traveler brushed it off with little explanation. 

“Where’s Add?” Psyker asked when he saw that the pony tailed man was nowhere to be seen. “We need to get out of here. Glave will come back soon.”

“Add’s fine,” Esper said with a flat voice. “Or should I say _Mastermind_. Tell him I said hi, although I doubt he’ll know who I am to appreciate it. Probably for the best.” The blank look Esper gave him made him shiver. 

Esper still gripped what looked padded locks linked by chains around his neck. The time traveler grunted as he grasped the metal chains, gritting his teeth in pain, his eyes shut. Psyker reached out to touch the necklace, but Esper stopped him and grabbed him by the wrist. 

“What’s wrong?” Psyker grew worried at Esper’s silence, but Esper hissed when he approached too close. That necklace was the same one Glave once sported. Why was it under Esper’s possession? The brawler made the connection, but refused to acknowledge it. He didn’t want to be right. That Esper’s true punishment was to be…

“Glave is free, that lucky bastard.” Esper laughed. “How was I fooled by him? He planned this the whole time…”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Psyker’s voice grew hoarse. 

“What was supposed to happen then?” The time traveler mocked him, “Place me back into my time and then you and Mastermind go be best buddies again?” He snorted, “If I don’t suffer like this, then my life will be cut short. I’ve seen enough timelines to know that.”

Despite the trouble Esper had caused, it was disturbing to watch the time traveler in so much pain. While Esper expressed anger and regret, his eyes held a clouded look, looking almost sorry when Psyker tried to talk to him. Esper was still wearing his usual clothes, but his pale face made him look older, worn out from seeing too much.

When Glave said Esper was to receive punishment, this was not what Psyker had in mind. He thought Esper would have his powers stripped of him or something else, not this. Esper’s fate was humiliation, to be forced into a state where time didn’t exist and to watch the world move on without him. Death would have been a saving grace. 

“Stop talking like that,” Psyker begged. “There has to be a way out. Maybe we’ll find Add too. Esper-” 

His sentence was interrupted midway with the loud noise. There was a sense of dread when Psyker looked down to see a portal with pink cracked outlines forming below his feet. It was difficult to see what was on the other side without going into the portal, but the brawler thought he heard cries of mercy from the other end. He didn’t want to find out where the portal led to. Before Psyker could open his mouth, someone’s voice pierced through the portal. The voice sounded similar to his, but the pitch was slightly off. 

“Add?” Psyker recognized the voice’s owner. Was Esper trying to get him to meet Mastermind again? 

“He’s not going to remember you, but he’ll figure out who you are.” Esper said. “I figured you would mention Mastermind. It’s always him, isn’t it? Curious how some timelines had you two trying to kill each other, but not this one… It will be interesting to see if he still thinks the same of you.” 

“What kind of joke is this?” Psyker asked. 

The brawler was starting to wonder if Esper was doing this for his own entertainment. Between him and Mastermind, Esper was always the hardest to read. It was never easy to tell what was on Esper’s mind and why he did the things he did. He wanted to question Esper, but his words were caught in his throat when Esper spoke again. 

“That’s not how you talk to the new timekeeper, is it?” Esper shook his head with a bitter smile. “Go on. Mastermind is waiting for you.”

He not so kindly pushed Psyker from the behind, sending the brawler through the portal. 

* * *

Mastermind was lying on his back in the outskirts of Velder, somewhat close to the populated area, but far enough that no civilian could venture out without being discouraged by a few stray demons. There was nothing outstanding about the site besides a few abandoned buildings, now a common occurrence because of the demon invasion. 

He rubbed his eyes at the sequence of numbers and codes displayed on a holographic monitors in front of him. The monitor’s screen was set at its highest lighting, but even then it remained too dim under the intense sunlight. The humidity and heat made him want to rest his eyes for a few seconds before fighting to open them once again. With a heavy sigh, the scientist dismissed the monitors and set them aside when it became clear that nothing was going to be accomplished today. 

The scientist remained lying on his back with his eyes closed in hopes of catching a few minutes of sleep, to make up for the hours he had lost last night. A few seconds passed before he couldn’t tolerate it any longer and sat up, his eyes fluttering opened. He couldn’t find the reason why he was so irritated and restless today. He considered reading a book he uncovered in the ruins the other day, but there was no motivation. Where did this lack of ambition come from? 

Could it be that he was…bored? How could a genius like him be bored when there is always work to be done? There was never a week where he failed to uncover new information to add to his database. The need to acquire more knowledge never slowed down. He was always hungry for more. Even if he didn’t sleep, there wouldn’t be enough time for the scientist to unravel everything he ever wanted to research. 

He worked on his many projects until he passed out from exhaustion, sometimes failing to remember that time existed until the sun rose. On rare occasions, Mastermind would go to bed at the end of the day with emptiness. No matter how he tried to sleep, his mind remained awake, often wandering to things he would prefer not to think about. 

In recent years, he realized that he often missed the presence of another person when left to his own devices for too long. He spent years in isolation deprived of company, so why did he crave for human interaction? There were moments where he missed interacting with civilians and even members of the El Search party. 

Mastermind was still deep in thought when he heard a loud screech not too far away. He spun around to see that there was a group of demons crowding around something. The demons were fixated on a metallic box carried by a bigger demon, which Mastermind assumed to be the boss. 

A wide grin made its way on Mastermind’s face when he saw El shards fly out of the box when one of the smaller demons foolishly fell over and caused the bigger one to lose its balance. Before he could even think of swooping in to grab them, chaos enveloped the demons as they scrambled and fought each other for the fallen Elshards. 

With a small groan, Mastermind ran to the area where the demons were and sent his dynamos racing towards them. While it would have been amusing to watch those demons destroy each other in agonizing ways, it would have taken too long for them to bring down each other. If he was going to get his hands on those Elshards, it would be more efficient to kill them himself to cut down on time.

Mastermind snatched the El shards from the grasp of the dead demons after slicing through their plated armor with ease, disgruntled when he discovered that most of them had been coated with blood. There was a loud howl from above when he gingerly held the crystals, pulling his head up to see the boss leap towards him. His dynamos were quick enough to save him from getting body slammed by the creature, but the impact of its jump shook the ground and threw Mastermind off his feet. 

Similar in body structure to the demons he fought from before, this one was several times larger and wore red plated armor. While it was slow, the demon compensated for that by throwing its weight on the ground, causing the earth to shiver when it ran across the field. Mastermind hovered with his dynamos to avoid the impact, falling back down to shoot a few energy beams at the demon. 

While he was occupied with the attack from midair, the demon took the opportunity to shake the ground again, making Mastermind lose his balance and fall on his stomach. The scientist clutched his stomach when he felt the floor run against what felt like a flesh wound. 

His arms shook when he brought himself to a standing position. Sweat and blood dripped down his chin when he mustered all his strength to jump on his dynamos, but was too slow to react in time when the demon charged at him full force. He flew through the air like a rag doll with only his dynamos to soften the fall when he fell to the ground. His vision whited out when he coughed out blood, trying to catch his breath and focus. This demon didn’t appear to be willing to give up on pursuing him. 

With the demon still after him, Mastermind looked back down to hurl several grenades at it. Dirt and debris scattered around the demon from the explosions, making it difficult for Mastermind to see through the dust particles. With his weapons still attached to the demon, he was about to throw in another drone for extra measure when a dark shadow hovered over them. 

The demon’s cries grew louder when an explosion erupted from above. Mastermind looked up to see a small crack form in the sky, crystal like shards breaking out from the force of the strange vortex. The outline of the portal was pink, almost the same shade of his eyes. It was curious how there was a recent increase in reported sightings for these portals, sometimes leading foolish travelers to different dimensions with no way back. 

Mastermind’s eyes widened when a dark figure fell from the portal. The person balanced his weight on six familiar looking weapons when he landed behind the demon, hovering just a few feet over the ground. 

The sudden appearance of a second person caught the demon by surprise. Mastermind took advantage of the demon’s shock and kicked it away to create distance between them, rearranging his dynamos into a triangle formation to shoot particle beams at it. The person charged at the demon, his weapons sending out electric sparks every time he threw kicks and punches. 

Mastermind ordered his weapons to adjust themselves before the stumbling demon and sent a beam of energy to cut the creature’s broken armor. The scientist cackled as the bomb he threw at a demon exploded, bringing a demon down on its knees with its blood gushing out of its pores. The demon howled for a few seconds until blood rushed up to clog its throat. As it fell, Mastermind caught sight of a few crystal dropped from its palms. 

Mastermind’s voice came out hoarse when he coughed out what looked to be blood. His eyes watered as he forced himself to take deep breaths, careful not to choke on his own saliva. 

His muscles tensed when someone lightly tapped him from behind, twisting his body to see the man holding a bottle of red liquid. The scientist looked at the health potion in question, but accepted the offer and unscrewed the glass bottle with an unreadable expression. He felt the man’s eyes following him as he drank down the potion with some hesitance. 

The man shared similar facial features as Mastermind, but his emotions were easier to read. He used dynamos like him, but their function was somewhat different. While Mastermind used his dynamos to carry out indirect attacks, the man used his for close combat, something the scientist preferred to avoid. The nasod technology the man used looked like a more perfected version of something Mastermind once worked on, but chose not to proceed further after discovering more efficient methods to fight.

“Dynamos? Nasod armor?” Mastermind glanced at the man’s weapons. 

“Yeah,” he nodded when he saw Mastermind’s curiosity perk up. “What about them?”

“How did you get your hands on that technology?” A flat line formed on the scientist’s lips. “Who are you…hey!” He glared when the brawler went to retrieve the crystals for himself. 

“I should get some in exchange for the help, right?” The man said with a playful grin, but tossed them over to Mastermind. 

Mastermind caught the crystals in one palm with a disdained expression etched on his face. Who was this asshole to act so amicable like they knew each other? 

“Well, it’s obvious who I am, isn’t it?” The man’s eyes were the same as his, one side of it artificial with a pink scar running down to the side of his cheek. 

Mastermind looked up to see that the portal had disappeared. He knew those portals were connected to time and space, that alternative timelines existed, but was it really possible to meet someone from other timelines? The scientist wanted to laugh at the idea, but then it came to him that no one else would be capable of recreating dynamos except for himself. 

“You’re Add,” Mastermind bit his lips when he saw the other fail to react to the name. “Or am I wrong?” 

“Yes, I am Add, but it would be confusing for both of us be called that, wouldn’t it?” The other said with a strange smile, “People call me Lunatic Psyker, but I prefer Lusa.”

“Lusa,” the scientist repeated the name, but that didn’t stop the questions from flooding his mind. There were so many things he wanted to know. Where did the name ‘Lusa’ come from? How did the brawler arrive in this timeline and why was he here? It felt like Psyker was watching for a reaction of some kind from Mastermind. What was Psyker expecting? 

“Hey, you okay?” He must have sensed his confusion and placed one hand on Mastermind’s shoulder. Psyker was careful not to startle Mastermind and talked to him in a gentle voice that surprised him. 

Although Mastermind tried to act indifferent to his other self, the base of his neck felt hot, his heart beating rapidly. From the heat of the battle or from the shock that Psyker existed? 

He couldn’t find the right words to answer Psyker’s question. What does one say when another person shows concern? It shouldn’t have been hard to find the answer, but for once, Mastermind didn’t know what to say or do in this situation. It has been too long since anyone showed him kindness at the same level as Psyker. 

He expected Psyker to leave once the fight was over, but the brawler remained. Despite the lack of words between them, it was not an awkward silence, but a moment of quiet that gave Mastermind time to think. It was…pleasant. 

After much pondering, Mastermind understood his emotions. He was happy, relieved. Even if Psyker had odd timing appearing in the middle of a battle, Psyker stayed to talk to him. While Psyker’s friendly attitude threw him off, something about it made it hard for Mastermind to hate him. The brawler’s presence comforted the Mastermind. It made him feel like he wasn’t on his own any more.

Despite having years to adjust to human civilization once he escaped the library, Mastermind consistently found himself preferring isolation. It was only recently did he realize that maybe his exhaustion in life was a form of loneliness rather than of boredom as he originally thought. 

Turning around to see Psyker still there, Mastermind said with a small smile, “Yeah… I think I’ll be fine.”

Maybe today would be the day he could stop feeling alone. 

* * *

The chains around Esper’s neck were still fresh, hot like iron when they touched his bare skin. Even after years of wearing them, the pain was persistent, dulled by time perhaps, but still there nonetheless. Esper learned that the more he struggled to take it off, the more intense the pain grew. He had learned to leave it alone and accept it as part of himself, just like how he was stuck in Henir’s Time and Space for gods know how long. 

Esper readjusted his jacket collar for the umpteenth time that day, discomforted by how stiff the material of the clothing article was. The jacket was black to match his pants with red lines resembling circuits. Chains similar to the one he wore around his neck decorated the wrists of the long sleeves and at the bottom edges of the jacket. The new clothing was somehow as uncomfortable as his plugsuit. 

They now called him the timekeeper. It was only appropriate for him to inherit Glave’s title since the old bastard was gone for good. The last Esper saw of him was years ago, when Glave striped him of his free will with a set of chains. As the administrator of Henir, he had acquired a vast amount of power, but was forever imprisoned in a place where time did not exist. He had the ability to view different timelines and dimensions from all angles, but he had no freedom to change anything that could affect the timelines.

What Esper thought on his situation no longer mattered. No matter what he wanted to do, he had no choice but to remain at his station. His sole purpose of living, if this could still be considered living, was to monitor those who dared to venture into Henir’s and to exchange miscellaneous items from adventurers. It was a dull task that somewhat helped the days roll by, but left Esper bored with nothing to look forward to. Only did the occasional adventurer survive long enough in Henir’s to entertain him for a short period of time. He was starting to understand why Glave enjoyed throwing travelers into fool’s errands.

Esper peeked down from the platform to see the many possible timelines running their courses, stretched over the empty void of space like small monitors of the dynamos he once owned. With the new power he had acquired, his dynamos were no longer of use, stored away in a place where he didn’t have to see them. Each timeline had the same people, yet they all led to different futures, sometimes overlapping with one another. 

As he gazed at the many possible timelines, his mind started to wander to Psyker. With all of the memories back, it amazed Esper how much Psyker still thought about Mastermind. After all that happened, he thought Psyker wouldn’t want to deal with any more of that alternative self crap. Maybe he didn’t know himself as well as he thought.

Why did he help Psyker reunite with Mastermind? Esper told himself that it was out of sheer boredom, an experiment to see if Mastermind would still respond to Psyker like he did the last two times. With the scientist responding surprisingly well to Psyker and even showing relief, Esper couldn’t help for feel something bubble at the pits of his stomach when he saw them living in happiness. 

Perhaps it was pity. Maybe because out of the original three, Psyker was the only one who could remember everything that happened: how they met, how Esper restarted the timeline, and how it ended when things got out of control. Mastermind didn’t know anything because his timeline was restarted, which meant he never met him or Psyker in his lifetime. Years passed since he had become the new timekeeper, but he didn’t look like a day past nineteen years old. 

Esper instinctively found the timeline where Psyker and Mastermind were with minimal effort. It was strange how out of all the Lunatic Psykers and Masterminds he had encountered in the last several timelines, he became the most attached to those two. It would have been best if he forgot them and moved on, but he couldn’t let go. He felt the need to check on them once in awhile to see if they were still there. With multiple timelines and dimensions flowing at different rates, it was easy to forget how much time had passed. Seeing his alternative selves told him how long it has been since his punishment started.

Esper wondered if Psyker would tell Mastermind the truth, but stopped himself from thinking further. Whatever Psyker chose to tell Mastermind was none of his business. Why should he care? 

He sometimes envied Mastermind for having no memories of when Esper restarted the timeline in another attempt to save Mother. Everything would have been simpler if he could just forget everything. He would have done anything for the blissful ignorance Mastermind lived in. 

“Are you the timekeeper?”

Esper’s brain stopped, his breathing grew short at the voice of another human being. He recognized that voice anywhere, younger and less stressed than his. The time traveler cracked a grin, but then remembered that no one could see it with the dark mask plastered to his face. It was pointless to form any meaningful relations with people when adventurers always came and left. The mask made it easier for him to remain detached. He turned around to see Time Tracer looking up at him. 

Time Tracer was certainly not small for his age, almost Esper’s height if they were to stand next to each other. However, the way he arched his back forward gave off the impression that he was shy and meek. When he made eye contact with Esper, the anxiety in his eyes made him look years younger. The jacket he wore over his dark clothes made his thin figure more prominent, too small for the growing teen. It looked like Time would soon need a new set of clothes. This realization made Esper grit his teeth in anticipation. Was it already that phase of the tracer’s life? 

“Yes, I’m the timekeeper.” Esper wondered if his younger self could hear the strain in his voice. “What do you want?” 

Time flinched, his mouth opened slightly before blurting out, “A-adel sent me here!” His cheeks turning pink at his own outburst. “He said you could teach me a method to travel through time and space!”

Esper looked at the tracer in amusement. Did he sound that young when he approached Glave years ago? The tracer had dark eye bags, magenta pupils darting back and forth between Esper and the platform they were standing on. This must have been Time’s first visit to Henir’s. Time rubbed his fingers together, an attempt to keep himself occupied when waiting for an answer. 

“A method to travel through time and space?” He echoed Time, but laughed at his younger self’s request.

Esper remembered how eager he was to use his newfound powers when Glave taught him, when he was still young and optimistic about his future. He was so sure that his future was in the past, that fixing his past was the solution to erasing all the pain. What a fool he was. 

The time traveler looked to see that Time was still there, glaring at Esper with determination in his visible eye. The left side of Time’s face was covered with an eye patch, a pointless gesture when Esper was sure that the left eye was already corrupted with toxins. 

“I’m serious!” Time exclaimed when he thought Esper wasn’t taking his words seriously. “I need to know!” He let out a disgruntled noise and said, “Look, if you can’t help me, then-” 

“Oh, I can help you. You certainly aren’t the first to ask for it either,” Esper drawled. “I’ll teach the method, if you help me…take care of a few pests. Their interference is threatening the fate of your timeline. Make them disappear, if you will.” 

“And what would that be?” The tracer wanted to know.

“Oh, just a few nuisances.” Esper waved with one hand, “I believe the names Amethyst and Berthe may ring a bell of where you’re from?”

He cackled as he watched Time look to him in horror. Berthe was a dangerous beast that was quick to take down its opponents if one wasn’t careful, but Esper knew that the beast wasn’t the one Time dreaded. 

Amethyst was a necromancer who had the ability to summon spirits of the dead. The chapel it occupied was filled with other restless souls. Time’s face turned pale, mumbling curses at the task Esper gave him. Esper said the words Time mouthed before the tracer could voice them. 

“Ghosts?” Esper’s eyes gleamed beneath his mask, “Are ghosts are too much for you?”

“No!” Time almost stuttered. He fought to remain calm, clutching his left wrist with his right hand and hissed, “I’ll do it. I _have_ to do it…for her.” His voice grew quiet near the end. 

Mother. Esper closed his eyes in memory of his mother’s fate. He thought he wanted to save her, but after seeing her in an infinite amount of timelines, he was starting to wonder if his memories of her were true. Even when he had the same mother as Psyker and Mastermind, what they remembered of her did not match. Was Mother a kind woman who cared about the well being of others? Or was she a strict parent who was cold and paid more attention to her research than to her child? 

What was true when Esper wasn’t even sure if Mother was the way he remembered her? No…he was done trying to prevent her death. Seeing her living in the other timelines was enough. For those timelines where she died? Well…that was how Esper knew he was going to meet another version of himself soon.

Even when told to face his fear of ghosts, Time insisted on accepting the task. It had yet to be determined if Time would do the deed, but still, it would be amusing to watch the tracer struggle the whole way. 

“Time traveling is a power not everyone can obtain,” Esper decided to make it blunt to the brat. “Learning it will come with a price, of course.” 

“I didn’t come all the way here to give up,” Time said with a scowl. 

“Good,” Esper beamed. “Then I hope you’ll keep the end of the deal and make this interesting.” His voice grew distant as he uttered the same words Glave once said to him, “Don’t disappoint me.”

Time seemed to have sensed Esper’s change in tune and gave the time keeper a wary look, as if already anticipating his fate. The tracer’s hair was growing longer, almost framing his face like Esper’s. Soon enough, he would no longer be a Time Tracer and claim a new title that would reflect the state of his sanity. Esper sighed when he excused Time to start on his quest. The tracer left Henir’s with a pleasant smile, unaware of the path he had chosen for himself. 


End file.
